JUST IN: Appeal Court commutes Dariye’s 14 years jail term to 10 years

The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal has commuted the sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment passed on a former Governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye, earlier this year to 10 years.

You would recall, A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court had sentenced Joshua Dariye, former Governor of Plateau state, to 14 years in prison.

Justice Adebukola Banjoko, the presiding judge, sentenced Dariye, a serving senator, to two-year and 14-year jail terms to be served concurrently without an option of fine.

In 2007, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) charged and arraigned him on a 23-count charge bothering on money laundering.

He was accused of diverting N1.126bn from Plateau Government’s ecological funds.

The former governor was said to have operated Ebenezer Reitner Ventures, an unregistered company through which he diverted the said funds.

In her ruling, the judge said: “I can’t imagine a brazen act of looting as in this case,” Banjoko said.

“I welled up while reading (the judgement) thinking of the victims; it is a litany of woes. They were adults making rational choices. More importantly, I think what touches me the most, your family, they are victims.

“Having found the defendant guilty of these counts of criminal breach trust and criminal appropriation, the court sentences you to two years for criminal breach of trust and 14 years for criminal appropriation.”