Two weeks after Reverend Jolly Nyame, Taraba State Governor, began a 14-year jail term for corruption, another former Governor has begun a 14-year sojourn in jail. He is Joshua Chibi Dariye, a serving Senator and former Governor of Plateau State.
A Federal Capital Territory High Court, sitting in Gudu, on Tuesday, found Dariye, ex-Governor of Plateau State, guilty on six of the 23 counts of corruption the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, slammed against him.
Justice Adebukola Banjoko sentenced the ex-Plateau Governor to two years for criminal breach of trust and 14 years for criminal appropriation. Both are to run concurrently. The judge didn’t give the former Governor any option of fine.
The case lasted 11 years.
Specifically, the court found Dariye guilty of misappropriating the state’s N1.16 billion Ecological Fund. He was found guilty of diverting the said sum into the account of Ebenezer Ratnen Venture, one of the companies he allegedly used as conduit for siphoning funds.
Giving her ruling, the trial judge said, “I can’t imagine a brazen act of looting as in this case.”
Continuing, she declared: “I welled up while reading (the judgement) thinking of the victims, it is a litany of woes. They were adults making rational choices. More importantly, I think what touches me the most, your family, they are victims.
“Having found the defendant guilty of these counts of criminal breach trust and criminal appropriation, the court sentences you to two years for criminal breach of trust and 14 years for criminal appropriation.”
Dariye governed Plateau State on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, from 1999. He was impeached on November 13, 2006 and succeeded briefly by his deputy, Michael Botmang. A Court of Appeal, on March 10, 2007, him to be reinstated as governor.
