Court Jails UDUTH Accountant Over Diversion Of N60m

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, has secured the conviction of one Lukumanu Sani Waziri, an accountant at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH), Sokoto, for corruption and abuse of office.

Waziri was found guilty of diverting over N60 million in public funds through unauthorised access to the Government Integrated Financial Information System (GIFMIS).

ICPC had in 2021, in a charge number FHC/ICPC/122021, arraigned Waziri and two others before Justice M. Abdulgafar of the Federal High Court, Sokoto Division, in a nine-count charge of fraud and corruption.
Justice Abdulgafar, delivering judgement, found Mr Waziri guilty of seven out of the nine counts levelled against him and sentenced him as follows: “one year imprisonment or a fine of ₦200,000 each on counts 1 and 2; one-year imprisonment each on counts 3, 4, and 5 without the option of a fine; and three-year imprisonment or a fine of ₦500,000 each on Counts 8 and 9.”

“The sentences are to run concurrently,” Justice Abdulgafar noted.

In the course of the trial, ICPC’s prosecutor, Dr Osuobeni Ekoi Akponimisingha, led evidence before the court on how Waziri, a designated user of GIFMIS in the teaching hospital, altered financial records and facilitated the transfer of multi-millions of government money into private accounts, including his own and that of one Monday Michael Adejo.

Waziri was also said to have, without authorisation, changed the bank account details meant for state taxes of Kogi, Edo, Bauchi and Zamfara States to that of Monday Adejo Michael where the taxes due to the states as mentioned above were fraudulently diverted to.

One of the counts against the accountant read: “That you, Kumumanu Sani Waziri (M) and Monday Michael Adejo (M) sometime in April 2020 or thereabout, conspired amongst yourselves to take possession of the sums of N6,127,465.75, N8,552,824.60 and 5,939,666.49 totalling N20,619,956.8 (twenty million, six hundred and nineteen thousand, nine hundred and fifty-six naira, eight Kobo) from the Government Integrated Financial Information System into the First Bank Account of Monday Michael Adejo with account number: 30142906334 on the prompting of Lukumanu Sani Waziri, which reasonably ought to have known that such funds form part of the proceeds of an unlawful act, namely: corruption and fraud and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Sections 18 and 15 (1) ( d ) and punishable under Section 15 ( 3 ) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 (as amended).”