The Supreme Court has affirmed the conviction and 12-year prison sentence of former Taraba state governor, Reverend Jolly Nyame, for embezzling N1.6 billion during his tenure from May 1999 to May 2007.
A unanimous judgment was delivered by a panel of five Justices led by Justice May Odili on Friday, February 7th. The judges deemed Nyame’s appeal to reverse his conviction and sentencing as lacking merit.
Remember that in May 2018, Justice Adebukola Banjoko of an Abuja High Court found the former governor guilty on 27 counts of money laundering out of the 41-count charge brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Specifically, the court sentenced him to 14 years for criminal breach of trust, 2 years for misappropriation, 7 years for gratification, and 5 years for obtaining public properties without due consideration.
Following this, the ex-governor appealed to the Court of Appeal to reverse his sentence. On November 16th, 2018, the appellate court upheld his conviction but reduced the concurrent sentence to 12 years, 5 years, 4 years, and one year and nine months, respectively, with fines ranging from N100m to N5m.
In today’s judgment, the Supreme Court nullified the option of a fine handed to the former governor.