Almost three weeks after Reverend Jolly Nyame, ex-Taraba State Governor, began a 14-year jail term for corruption, prison doors beckon another former Governor for graft.
A Federal Capital Territory High Court, sitting in Gudu, on Tuesday, found Joshua Chibi Dariye, ex-Governor of Plateau State, guilty on six of the 23 counts of corruption the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, slammed against him. The case has 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.
But he is yet to be sentenced because trial is still ongoing. The trial judge, Justice Adebukola Banjoko, was still reading his judgement at the time of filing this report.
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.
