Tahir was the pension accountant when Stephen Oronsaye was the HoS between 2009 and 2010.
By Jeffrey Agbo
Garba Tahir, former Chief Accountant of Pension Office in the Office of the Head of Service (HoS) of the Federation, has been sentenced to three years imprisonment.
A Federal High Court handed down the sentence on Friday, noting that the prosecution had proven the seven-count charge preferred against Tahir beyond reasonable doubt.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, who handed down the three-year jail term in each of the counts, however, ordered that the sentencing, which amounted to 21 years imprisonment, would run concurrently beginning from April 2.
“I find in the end that the prosecution has discharged the burden of proof placed on it by law. Consequently, I make an order convicting the defendant as charged. This is the Judgement of this court,” the judge declared.
Tahir was the pension accountant when Stephen Oronsaye was the HoS between 2009 and 2010.
Oronsaye, who is also facing a N2 billion money laundering charge before Justice Ekwo, is also awaiting his judgment fixed for April 5.
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He is being charged, alongside others, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on 27 counts.
A former director of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team in the office of the HoS then, Abdulrasheed Maina, was, on November 8, 2021, convicted and sentenced to eight-year imprisonment for N2 billion pension fraud.
Meanwhile, delivering the judgment on Friday, the judge said in the case it was clear that the allegations of money laundering were premised on the conversion of resources derived directly or indirectly from illegal acts.
He further said that Tahir failed to show even by a shred of evidence that he utilised any of the money paid to him by the office of the HoS through his private bank for any official duty for which the payments were made.
In the seven counts, Tahir was accused of diverting over N26 million through his Ecobank account using Charo Bureau De Change Ltd, among others.
He, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.