Court Sentences Deputy Director To 14-Year Jail For Defrauding Job Seekers Of N7m

A High Court sitting in Gusau, Zamfara State, has sentenced a serving Deputy Director of the Federal Character Commission, Alhaji Ahmad Balarabe, to 14-year imprisonment, for defrauding job seekers of money worth N7million.

This was contained in a statement by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission and made available to SaharaReporters on Tuesday.

The anti-graft commission, ICPC, had earlier filed a suit against Balarabe, before Justice Bello Shinkafi.

He was first then arraigned in September 2018 on a two-count charge bordering on obtaining by pretence, an allegation to which he pleaded not guilty, thereby setting the tone for the lengthy trial.

The ICPC prosecutor, Mashkur Salisu, had told the court that, “Balarabe, while serving as the Coordinator, Sokoto and Zamfara States for FCC in 2017, collected N7million from some job seekers with the promise to get them employment with the Federal University, Gusau, Zamfara State.”

Salisu also informed the court that, “the said action of the convict was in contravention of Section 1(1)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”

In his ruling, Justice Shinkafi said that the trial had confirmed their case beyond reasonable doubt and that the action of the convict was “despicable and unbecoming of a public servant”.

Nigeria Going Nowhere Until Education Is Given Priority In National Budget, Varsity Don Says

A university lecturer, Dr Peter Osimiri, has said that the currently devastating state of Nigerian education will not improve until the Federal Government take investments in education as capital expenditure.

Osimiri, who is a lecturer of Philosophy at the University of Lagos, made this known in a public lecture delivered at the grand finale of the 40th anniversary of Humani Alaga High School in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

The don, while speaking on the theme, “Falling Standard of Education in Nigeria: Who is to blame” berated the depressing share of the national budget given to the education sector.

He lamented that the degrading features of deplorable school facilities, poor funding of researches and ill-equipped educators bedevilled the academic sector at all levels in the country.

Osimiri said, “The Nigerian government at all levels has not taken education to be a top priority. Regrettably, our politicians keep feeding education with crumbs from the national budget. This cannot help us. This cannot help the country. If this persists, the standard of education will keep falling.

“Without education, the economy will be deteriorating. Education evokes thinking, which in turn drives the economy with innovations. Until we see education as capital expenditure, we are going nowhere.”

Also present at the occasion was the Local Inspector of Education of the Ibadan North Local Government, Mrs Foluke Ogunsiji.

In her speech, Mrs Ogunsiji commended the old students’ association of the school for their kind and courageous gestures towards revamping the school. She also assured that the Oyo State Government under Governor Seyi Makinde would ensure the proper funding of education.

Corruption

Legal

News

AddThis

Original Author

SaharaReporters, New York

Disable advertisements

from 24HRSNEWS
via 24HRSNEWS

from EDUPEDIA247https://ift.tt/32TP3Y6
via EDUPEDIA

Nigerian Academy Of Science Inducts First Female President

The Nigerian Academy of Science has inducted a professor of Parasitology/Epidemiology, Ekanem Ikpi Braide, as its 19th President on Thursday. In a statement issued by Oladoyin Odubanjo, the Executive Secretary of the Academy, Braide is the Academy’s first female President in 44 years of existence. It read, “Braide was a member of the national committee that achieved the laudable feat of guinea worm eradication in Nigeria. “She has a rich professional experience as a researcher and an administrator. In July 2010, Professor Braide was honoured by the President of Nigeria with the award of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) for her contribution to disease control in Nigeria. “She was nominated by the Honourable Minister of Health to serve in the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee on COVID-19 Health Sector Response (MEACoC-HSR). “Professor Braide served as Vice-Chancellor, Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH) Calabar, Nigeria (2004 to 2009) and as P...

NLNG Signs Letter Of Intent On Delayed Gas Expansion Project

The Nigerian Natural Liquefied Gas LTD has signed a letter of intent for the engineering, procurement and construction of its long held up Train Seven project. In a statement released by the company on Wednesday, it said that the $10bn project will be executed by a consortium of Italian firm Saipem, Japan’s Chiyoda and South Korea’s Daewoo. The statement reads, “The project will form part of the investment of over $10bn including the upstream scope of the LNG value chain, thereby boosting the much needed Foreign Direct Investment profile of Nigeria.” Managing Director of NLNG, Tony Atta, said in 2018 that the Final Investment Decision would be made in the fourth quarter of that year. This did not however, materialize. According to the release, the project will have a four to five-year execution time after the signing of the FID. The project is expected to add an extra 8 million tons per annum of gas to the 22 mtpa currently exported by the company. Oil News AddThis :...

Former Maritime Agency Boss, Buba Galadima, Accuses AMCON Of Witch-hunt After Property Takeover

A former Director-General of the Nigeria Maritime Agency, Buba Galadima, has accused the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria of witch-hunt after the agency took possession of his business and assets on Tuesday in Abuja. Galadima, an ardent critic of President Muhammadu Buhari, claimed that he did not borrow money or have unpaid debt with Unity Bank, which lodged a complaint against him and occasioned AMCON’s move on Tuesday. The properties taken over include House No. 15, Addis Ababa Crescent, Wuse Zone 4, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and House No. 4, Bangui Street, Wuse 2, also in Abuja. Reacting to the situation, Galadima said, “This is an attempt to disgrace and break me down. This is injustice and an attempt to humiliate me. "But I am unbreakable and they can never silence me. They sacked me and over 50 people that sleep in the apartment. "We don’t know where to go. We will remain on the streets. We will remain on the streets until God provi...

EDUPEDIA247

Search This Blog