The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has sentenced a former Executive Director of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Captain Ezekiel Bala Agaba, to seven years in prison for laundering the sum of N1.5 billion.
Justice Ibrahim Buba handed down the sentence on Wednesday, after convicting the former NIMASA ED.
In 2015, the EFCC had alleged that the convict while serving as the ED in charge of Maritime, Safety and Shipping, fraudulently conspired with the then-Director General, Patrick Akpobolokemi, to obtain the huge sum by false pretence from the Federal Government after which it was fraudulently converted.
In June 2019, the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos also sentenced the former Director-General of the agency, Calistus Obi, to seven years in prison or a N42 million fine.
Justice Mojisola Olatoregun gave the sentence on June 3, following allegations of fraud to the tune of N136 million.
Another former Acting Director-General of NIMASA, Haruna Baba-Jauro, also faced trial in 2019 on 19 counts bordering on theft, fraudulent conversion of NIMASA’s property to their private use and money laundering of N304 million.
Baba-Jauro assumed leadership of the agency after the tenure of Patrick Akpobolokemi.
Social commentators are questioning the reasons why the Office if the Director General of NIMASA is fraught with Corruption over the past 2 decades and have now come to the verdict that quarterly scrutiny of the Agency books be done and made public.
They also point fingers at legislators set to carryout oversight functions of the Agency under the ministry of Transportation for all the instances where the DG of NIMASA loots the treasury and where misappropriation of funds have been discovered.
(C) Control TV 2020.
