Defendant was the only Person who knew of the Rice Seller in Lagos, who by
the Memo ought to have received approximately Eight Million Naira and not
Twenty Four Million, Three Hundred Thousand Naira and there was no Due
Process and Accountability for the Money and therefore, the Defendant is
found to have Misappropriated the Sum of Money in this Count and is hereby
found Guilty as Charged.
Counts 9, 11 and 13 are with regard to the Sums of Twenty Seven Million
Naira (N 27,000,000.00), Thirty Two Million, Three Hundred Thousand
Naira (N32, 300, 000.00) and Forty Two Million Naira (N42, 000,000.00) all
meant for the Presidential Visit; and which were moveable properties
never given to PW4, Mr. Dennis Nev, to disburse. The Defendant accepted
that he orally instructed Mr. Dennis Nev to prepare the Memos and he
approved the Memos when presented to him. It remained uncontroverted
that these Sums of Monies were withdrawn from the Account of Taraba State
Government.
It is at this point that there were divergent versions of what happened to the
Monies and whether the purpose for which they were approved, were
fulfilled or not. Where did the Money Trail End? Mr. Dennis Nev signed as a
Receiver on the Payment Vouchers and stated that he never formed any
Committees and did not know what happened to the Monies after he took
them into the Defendant’s Office. There were No Retirement of these Funds
and the Requisite Officials or the CommitteeMembers, were not produced
before the Court to attest to the fact that they received the Monies or
produced any Committee Report on their activities.
Since the Defendant maintained that there were Committees setup including
the Security and Protocol Committees, and since he said he saw the List of
Committee Members, the burden was on him to produce at least One
Member and the List. There were No Receipts evidencing the fact that
Monies were paid for what were stated in the Memos. By the fact that there
was no evidence whatsoever produced as to the existence of the Committee,
or Committees, indicates that there were no Committees formed and the
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