ICPC secures court jail of varsity teaching hospital accountant for diversion of N60m, with option of fine
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Lukumanu Waziri, an accountant at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH), Sokoto has been jailed three years for diverting N60 million through unauthoried access to the Government Integrated Financial Information System (GIFMIS).
The Federal High Court in Sokoto sentenced the convict as follows: “One year imprisonment or a fine of N200,000 each on Counts 1 and 2; one year imprisonment each on Counts 3, 4, and 5 without the option of a fine; and three years imprisonment or a fine of N500,000 each on Counts 8 and 9.”
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in 2021 arraigned Waziri and two others before Justice M. Abdulgafar on a nine-count charge of fraud and corruption.
ICPC Prosecutor Osuobeni 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-million public funds into private accounts, including his own and that of one Monday Michael Adejo.
Waziri was also, without authorisation, changed the bank account details meant for state taxes of Kogi, Edo, Bauchi, and Zamfara to those of Monday Adejo Michael, where the taxes due to the states were fraudulently diverted.
One of the counts read: “That you LUKUMANU 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 totaling 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).”
The court found Waziri guilty of seven of the nine counts and sentenced him accordingly.
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