Newsspecng

N26m pension fraud: Court jails ex-HoS Chief Accountant

Releated Post

 A former Chief Accountant, Pension Office of the Office of the Head of Service (HoS) of the Federation, Garba Tahir, has been sentenced to three years imprisonment.

Tahir was sentenced by a Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday.

Tahir was the pension accountant when Mr. Stephen Oronsaye was the HoS between 2009 and 2010.

Oronsaye is also facing a N2 billion money laundering charge before Justice Ekwo.  He is also awaiting judgement in his case, which has been fixed for April 5.

In his judgement, the Presiding judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo held that the prosecution proved the allegations contained in the seven-count charge on which Tahir was tried, beyond reasonable doubt.

Although Justice Ekwo sentenced Tahir to three years per count, the judge ordered that the sentences shall run concurrently.

The judge said: “I find in the end that the prosecution has discharged the burden of proof placed on it by law.

“Consequently, I make an order convicting the defendant as charged…”

The judge added that it was clear that the allegations of money laundering were premised on conversion of resources derived directly or indirectly from illegal act.

“In this case, the aim of the conversion is either to conceal or disguise the illicit origin of the resources or property.

“In this case, I have to agree with the prosecution that the facts of conversion have been consistent in each and every count in being emphatic about the undisclosed origin of the transaction or payment.

“This has given rise to the several cash lodgements into the private bank account of the defendant either in person or by using proxies thereby leading to the conclusion that there is intention to conceal the illicit origin of the cash in question.

“This is what I found in this case. I find that the prosecution has proved the case against the defendant beyond reasonable doubt,” the judge said.

He noted Tahir merely denied the allegations without any concrete evidence to rebut the case of the prosecution.

The judge equally held that Tahir failed to show, even by a shred of evidence, that he utilised any of the money paid to him by the office of the HoS through his private bank for any official duty for which the payments were made.

“In fact, the defendant was very condescending and rather impetuous in the manner he responded to the questions during cross examination.

“Being a lawyer and an accountant, I expected the defendant to understand the implication of what he was doing in the witness box and the enormity of the allegations in the charge against him but he did not.

“He left the case of the prosecution unchallenged,” he added.

Tahir was accused, in the charge prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), of diverting over N26million through his ECOBANK account, using Charo Bureau De Change Ltd, among others.

In providing its case the prosecution called five witnesses, including Mr. Charles Bonat, former Permanent Secretary, Establishment and Records Department in the office of the HoS then.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More Related Posts

Thanks for subscribing to our newsletter