By Taiye Agbaje and Chinyere Onuorah
The Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday sentenced the former Minister of Power, Mr Saleh Mamman, to 75 years imprisonment in absentia over N33.8 billion money laundering offences.
Justice James Omotosho, who convicted Mamman in all the 12 counts preferred against him by the EFCC, ordered that the sentence shall run consecutively and not concurrently.
Justice Omotosho said that the absence of the ex-minister in court today and on the last adjourned date was a deliberate attempt to stop the wheel of justice.
The judge, who agreed with the EFCC’s lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, that though the defendant was not in court, the provisions of Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015, gave the court the power to proceed with the sentencing.
The judge held that Mamman cannot claim to have suffered a miscarriage of justice.
He consequently sentenced the convict to seven years imprisonment on Counts one, two, three, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11 and 12 without option of fine.
Justice Omotosho also sentenced him to three year-jail term on Count 4 with an option of fine of N10 million and two years’ imprisonment on Count 5 without option of fine.
The judge, who ordered that the sentence shall run consecutively, said this shall commenced from the date of his arrest.
He, therefore, ordered all security agencies in and outside the country, including the INTERPOL, to arrest Mammn anywhere he is sighted and handed over to the Nigerian Correctional Services for his jail term.
Also based on the application by counsel for the prosecution, which was not challenged by the ex-minister’s lawyer, Mohammed Ahmed, Justice Omotosho also ordered the final forfeiture of Mamman’s two properties located in choice areas of Abuja and monies in different currencies recovered by the anti-graft agencies.
The judge further ordered that the differential amount between the monies and assets recovered from Mamman and the sum of N22 billion the prosecution was able to establish during the trial, out of the N33. 8 billion allegedly siphoned from the Zungeru and Mambilla Hydro Electric Power projects, be refunded by the convict.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Justice Omotosho had on May 7 convicted Mamman in absentia over allegations of money laundering.
Although Mamman was conspicuously absent in court, Justice Omotosho, in the judgment, held that the EFCC had been able to establish the 12-count amended charge against the defendant beyond reasonable doubt.
(NAN)
