TheCable

A high court sitting in Yola, Adamawa state, has jailed Ibrahim Umar and Sahabo Hamman, staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for collecting bribes.

They were sentenced to prison on Thursday by Nathan Musa, the presiding judge.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had charged Umar and Hamman to court for allegedly taking a bribe of N362 million from Diezani Allison-Madueke, former minister of petroleum resources.

They were found guilty of conspiring to defraud the federal government with the intent to compromise the 2015 general election.

The judge also asked Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police, and the international police to produce Diezani to face prosecution over the money she sent to the convicted INEC staff.

Musa said the court delivered the verdict after “due diligence established a conspiracy between the persons”.

He, therefore, sentenced the two staff to seven years each on the three counts preferred against them by the EFCC.

He said he gave them a lenient sentence since they were first time offenders, saying the sentence would run concurrently.

“The offence has a mandatory provision. I’m constrained by the law. They shall be sentenced to seven years imprisonment without the option of fine. However in view of plea to temper justice with mercy, I will allow the sentence to run concurrently,” the judge ruled.