Kebbi lecturer imprisoned for diverting study grant

Muhammed Sani Nuhu, a former academic staff member of Waziri Umaru Federal Polytechnic, Kebbi State, has been sentenced to five years imprisonment.

Nuhu, who was dragged before Hon. Justice Hassan Usman of the Kebbi State High Court, Birnin Kebbi Judicial Division by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), was jailed for deviously allotting over N6 million belonging to the polytechnic to himself.

This development was confirmed in a statement by the Spokesperson of the commission, Azuka Ogugua.

According to Ogugua, Nuhu conferred a corrupt advantage on himself when he converted into personal use the sums of “two million Naira (N2,000,000:00) in 2015 and four million, one hundred and seventy-three thousand, four hundred Naira (N4,173,400:00) in 2016.”

The ICPC spokesperson further revealed that Nuhu, a dismissed academic staff member of the Waziri Umaru Federal Polytechnic, received the monies under a special grant offered to him to attend an international conference in Aberdeen, United Kingdom (UK), and the first tranche of payment advanced to him for the Doctor of Philosophy programme at the University of Technology Malaysia, respectively.

In charge No. KB/HC/4C/2020, counsel to the ICPC, Mashkur Salisu told the court in a two-year trial that the convict refused to embark on the said programme and converted the money to his personal use.

Salisu argued that the convict’s action was contrary to and punishable under Section 19 of the Corrupt Practises and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, as well as Section 311 of the Penal Code, and punishable under Section 312 of the Penal Code Law (Cap 89) Laws of Northern Nigeria, 1963.

Finding the former poly lecturer guilty on counts one to three, the trial judge dismissed count four levelled against him.