The Supreme Court has affirmed the six-year jail term handed a former Assistant Director in the Federal Civil Service, John Yusufu Yakubu over his complicity in the conversion of about N24 billion from the Police Pension Fund.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja had, in a judgment on May 22, 2018, reversed an earlier decision of Justice Abuabakar Talba of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which convicted him on a three-count charge and gave him an option of fine at N250,000 per count.
In its judgment in 2018, the Court of Appeal sentenced Yakubu to two years per count, to run consecutively without an option of fine, and ordered him to refund N22.9 billion.
A five-man panel of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Musa Dattijo Mohammed, in a judgment yesterday, upheld the 2018 decision of the Court of Appeal.
In the lead judgment, Justice Tijani Abujakar said: “It will appear that, considering the offence for which the appellant was convicted by the trial court, the appellant merely got a slap on the wrist with the imposition of a meagre, paltry, insignificant, ridiculous and laughable sum of N750,000 as fine in lieu of imprisonment in respect of three counts for which the appellant was convicted.
“I share the same views with the lower court that in view of the sum misappropriated by the appellant and his clear and express plea of guilt, the nature and gravity of the crime, its destructive effect on the country and its negative impact on the beneficiaries of the funds, who are retired police officers, and the grave breach of public trust, a severe sentence ought to have been imposed to deter other people from such heinous crime.
“The decision of the lower court to interfere with the ridiculous, bizarre and outrageous sentence imposed by the trial court on the appellant cannot be faulted.
“I wholly endorse it and order the parties in this appeal to queue behind the decision as the decision is sound and revolutionary, and a note of counsel to potential criminals that it is no longer business as usual.”
Justices Mohammed, Centus Nweze, Helen Ogunwumiju and Adamu Jauro, who were also on the panel, agreed with the lead judgment.
Although the Court of Appeal sentenced Yakubu to prison in 2018, the prosecuting agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), claimed it was only able to arrest him in 2020.
According to the EFCC, Yakubu has, since his arrest in 2020, been in prison.
