CASE NUMBER 10879:

EX GOVERNOR OF TARABA STATE BAGS 14 YEARS IMPRISONMENT

Alleged Perpetrators(s)

REVEREND JOLLY TEVORU NYAME

Location (Town / State)

, Taraba

Date of Event

12 Jun 2018

Date of republication

12 June every year

Case category (Choose all that apply)

Case Summary

Reverend Jolly Nyame has earned fourteen years imprisonment with no option of fine as his reward for misappropriating state funds during his tenure as Taraba State Governor between 1999-2007.

Full story

Reverend Jolly Nyame was brought up in the vineyard of the Lord and ordained as a Reverend gentleman of the United Methodists Church of Nigeria (UMCN). Taraba State indigenes had such great trust in him that he was elected as Governor of Taraba State on three occasions. He was first elected as Governor of Taraba from 1991-1993, then from 1999-2003, and rel-elected in 2003-2007.

However, Jolly Nyame was prosecuted by the EFCC for allegedly diverting N1.64 billion while he served as Governor from 1999 to 2007. His trial which started in 2007 lasted for eleven years. He was arraigned at the Federal High Court Abuja on 41 counts of offences bordering on money laundering, criminal breach of trust, and gratification to the tune of N1.64 billion. The defendant pleaded Not Guilty to all the counts, and challenged the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court (Abuja) to try him for offences that were allegedly committed at Taraba State. He also filed an application on the 10th October, 2007 wherein he sought to quash the 41 count charge for failure to disclose a prima facie case against him. His objections were dismissed by the trial Court in a ruling delivered on 20th November, 2007.

Reverend Nyame appealed against this decision to the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal also found his applications lacking in merit, and dismissed the objections in its’ ruling of 24th February, 2009.
Reverend Nyame then appealed to the Supreme Court, where his objections were dismissed with finality on 5th March, 2010. He was ordered to return to face trial before Honourable Justice Banjoko of the Federal High Court Abuja.

Upon return to the Federal High Court, the EFCC tendered evidence to show how Ex-Governor Jolly Nyame had given instructions for total sum of N250m to be paid for stationery in January 2005, N25m for the same purpose in February 2005, and 20m for the same purpose in October 2005. The payments were made to Salman Global Ventures Limited (a company which did not even bid to participate in the contract). The items paid for were never supplied to the state. The EFCC also revealed that there was no formal contract between Salman Global Ventures Ltd and the State Government, yet the company repeatedly received payments for the supplies which it never carried out.

The Prosecution also adduced evidence to show how Nyame received about N80m as gratification from Salman Global Ventures Limited. Nyame also authorized the payment of the whooping sum of over N100 Million from the state treasury for hosting President Olusegun Obasanjo’s one-day visit to Taraba State in 2007. His crimes also include the payment of N24 Million to some bogus suppliers to purchase grains for Taraba State LGAs.
The EFCC which was led by Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), called 14 witnesses and closed its case on November 22, 2016. The defendant 4 witnesses including himself.

Justice Banjoko delivered a long judgment on the 30th May, 2018, wherein she faulted the ex-governor for approving bogus contracts without due diligence. She convicted Nyame on 27 counts out of the 41 he was facing. The court held Nyame culpable for the monies paid to Salman Global Ventures Ltd. The court was particularly concerned that Nyame took no step to prosecute the company after it had defaulted in supplying the stationeries the Taraba State Government had paid for. The judge noted that Nyame had through his then Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Abubakar Tutare, approved a memo for that contract, which was awarded to a firm, Saman Global Ventures, on January 1, 2005, sidelining key officials of the Ministry of Finance in the process. She held that the defendant gave that memo life by giving his approval, noting that N180 million was subsequently diverted from the contract sum and handed to the ex-governor. The judge noted that the evidence against the ex-governor in respect of the transaction was “circumstantial” because no other document had his signature, except the memo, she said the manner funds were approved and released from the state’s treasury, showed that the defendant acted in breach of his oath of office. The court further held that Nyame had repeatedly approved release of funds to the company despite being aware that it neither purchased the stationery nor executed any contract.
Justice Banjoko in her strongly worded judgement faulted Nyame for criminal breach of trust beyond reasonable doubt. The court noted that the citizens of Taraba had elected the defendant, a clergyman, on three separate occasions, to govern them, which shows constant level of trust.

The court then sentenced Nyame to fourteen years upon conviction for criminal breach of trust; seven years for receiving gratification; five years for obtaining valuable public properties without consideration, and two years for criminal misappropriation. This amounted to a total of 28 years imprisonment, but the judge further held that the sentences are to run concurrently, hence, Nyame is to spend fourteen years in jail as payment for his crimes. He was not given the option of a fine. The court also directed the EFCC to return all funds it had recovered from the ex-governor to the Taraba State Treasury.

This conviction is intended to serve as a strong deterrence to all sitting Governors to imbibe accountability during their tenure.

External links/URLs

http://punchng.com/n1-64bn-fraud-ex-taraba-gov-nyame-jailed-for-14-years/

http://thenationonlineng.net/n1-64b-fraud-ex-governor-nyame-goes-to-jail-for-28yrs/

http://dailypost.ng/2018/05/30/breaking-ex-taraba-governor-jolly-nyame-sentenced-14-ye

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