The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) has secured the
conviction of a top prison officer as
Justice J.J Majebi of the Kogi State High
Court, Okene, convicted and sentenced
Joseph Friday Idachaba, deputy controller
of Prisons, to seven years imprisonment
for offences bordering on obtaining money
under false pretences.
Arraigned in 2012 on a three-count
charge, the accused was found guilty on
count three of the charge by the trial
judge, who, however, acquitted him on the
two remaining counts.
Count three of the charge reads: “That
you Joseph Friday Idachaba (m) being a
deputy comptroller of Nigeria Prisons
Service, and Onoja D. Ruth (IP) also a
staff of Nigeria Prison Service, sometime
between July, 2012 to February 2013 at
Lokoja, Kogi State did with intent to
defraud obtained N1,403,114.09 only
from the federal government of Nigeria
via the Nigeria Prison Service, with
pretence that same amount was the
payment of monthly salaries from Nigeria
Prison Service, which amount was
credited into the UBA Plc account No
2054047736 belonging to one Opia
Mohammed Ugbade (now at large),
through NIGSS electronic fund transfer
(NEFT) between July 2012-to February
2013, that the said Opia Mohammed
Ugbade’s name found in the Nigeria
Prison Service electronic payroll is not a
staff of the service, which pretence you
knew to be false and hereby committed
an offence contrary to section 1(1)
paragraphs A&B.”
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