7th February, 2020
The Supreme Court has affirmed the judgment of the Court of Appeal which sentenced former governor of Taraba state, John Nyame to 12 years imprisonment for breach of trust and misappropriation of public funds.
The court however set aside the N495 million fines imposed on him by the appeal court.
Nyame had approached the Supreme Court after the court of appeal affirmed his conviction by an FCT high court, over a N1.6illion theft charge.
The appeal court reduced the sentence from 14 to 12 years.
Delivering Judgment, Justice Amina Augie held that the Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold the conviction of Nyame was apt based on available evidence.
Augie, who delivered the judgment written by Justice Mary Peter-Odili said the Court of Appeal had imposed fine without any prompting by either of the parties to the case and without hearing from the appellant.
“The lower court ought to have heard from the parties, especially, the appellant who appealed for the reduction of the sentence imposed by the trial court, before imposing those fines on him.
“This court affirms the guilt and conviction of the ex-governor by upholding the Court of Appeal’s reduction of the 14-year jail term pronounce on the appellant to 12 years.
“Allowing the appeal in its entirety is a tall order, but there is no question that the fines were a nullity’’, she said.
Justice Adebukola Banjoko of the FCT High Court on May 30, 2018, convicted Nyame on a total of 27 out of the 41-count corruption charge instituted against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He gave Nyame, who served as governor between 1999 and 2007, a 14-year jail term.