Supreme Court affirms 12 year imprisonment of ex Taraba state governor

The Supreme Court has upheld the conviction and 12-year imprisonment handed to the former governor of Taraba state, reverend Jolly Nyame by the court of appeal, Abuja

The court of appeal, in a November 16, 2018 judgment upheld Nyame’s conviction and sentencing by the high court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) over his fraudulent conduct while in office as governor, which included diversion of public funds.

In a judgment on Friday, a five-man panel of the supreme court said Nyame’ appeal partially succeeded.

The apex court upheld the portion of the court of appeal judgment relating to conviction and sentencing but set aside the portion of the judgment which imposed millions of naira fines on the ex-governor.

Justice Amina Augie, who read the lead judgment, said the court of appeal imposed the fines without any prompting by either of the parties to the case.

In May 30 2018, the trial court convicted Nyame on 27 out of the 41 counts contained in the charge filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in July 2007.

He was convicted on 16 counts of criminal breach of trust, 9 counts of criminal misappropriation, 1 count of gratification and 1 count of accepting a valuable thing without consideration.

He was found to have converted Taraba state’s funds estimated at 1.64 billion naira.

The trial court had sentenced him to a cumulative 28-year imprisonment, without an option of fine.

It was the portion of the court of appeal judgment which relates to fine that Supreme Court set aside in its judgment today.