Sokoto River Basin director jailed six years for misuse of public funds
The Katsina State Excessive Courtroom has convicted and jailed Mr. Rabiu Musa Matazu, Director of Administration of the Sokoto Rima River Basin Improvement Authority (SRRBDA), for corruptly changing public funds to non-public use.
The Impartial Corrupt Practices and Different Associated Offences Fee (ICPC) secured the suspect’s conviction, in accordance with a press release launched on Wednesday.
The Fee had arraigned Mr. Matazu in Go well with No. KTH/7C/2022 earlier than Honourable Justice Abbas Bawule of the Katsina State Excessive Courtroom on a four-count cost bordering on prison breach of belief and abuse of workplace.
What Transpired in Courtroom
On the resumption of proceedings, Rabiu Matazu pleaded not responsible to all of the counts once they had been learn to him by the registrar.
The case proceeded to a full trial that lasted three years.
The ICPC prosecutor, Mr. Ibrahim Garba, knowledgeable the court docket that the convict obtained N305,000 from his subordinate, Mr. Lawal Dan Sarki, being hire proceeds from properties belonging to SRRBDA in Katsina State.
Relatively than remitting the cash into the company’s account, Mr. Matazu was accused of misappropriating it for his private profit.
One of many costs towards him learn:
“That you just, Rabiu Musa Matazu (m), someday in October 2014 or thereabout throughout the jurisdiction of this Honourable Courtroom, used your place as Director of Administration, Sokoto Rima River Basin Improvement Authority (SRRBDA), to confer unfair benefit upon your self by receiving the overall sum of ₦305,000 proceeds from hire collected on behalf of your company, which you transformed to your private use and thereby dedicated an offence opposite to and punishable beneath Part 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Different Associated Offences Act, 2000.”
The defendant entered his protection and closed his case.
Courtroom’s Judgment
- Delivering judgment on the case, Justice Bawule discovered Matazu “responsible of all counts levelled towards him by the ICPC and pronounced him convicted accordingly.”
- The court docket consequently sentenced the defendant to 6 months imprisonment or an choice of N20,000 high quality on counts 1, 2, and three, and 5 years imprisonment with out an choice of high quality on the fourth rely.
- The sentences are anticipated to run concurrently.
- Reacting to the event, the ICPC highlighted that the conviction underscores its resolve to make sure that public workplace is just not used for private achieve and that offenders are held accountable beneath the regulation.
Extra Insights
The event comes months after the ICPC chairman, Dr. Musa Aliyu, disclosed that the company recognized and arrested people chargeable for manipulating the payroll system, together with one case the place a authorities employee added his members of the family to the system.
“We now have been capable of observe and get better this amount of cash, and we’ve got additionally recognized people who find themselves inserting ghost employees within the system. We even found that someone had put his spouse, his son, and his in-laws on the payroll,” he mentioned.
In accordance with him, the company recovered over N20 billion in pension deductions from salaries allotted to ghost employees in 2024.
