N25 Million Theft: Court Slams N100k Fine On Revenue Board Chair, Others

The chairman of the Gombe State Board of Internal Revenue Atiku Mu`azu Bayum was on Thursday convicted and sentenced to pay a fine of N100,000 upon his guilty plea of stealing N25 million belonging to the state government.

Atiku was convicted along with Mohammed Adi, Ibrahim Abubakar and Abubakar Usman respectively Chief Store Officer, Chief Accountant and Director of the Gombe State Board of Internal Revenue.

They were arraigned before Justice Beatrice Iliya of the Gombe State High Court sitting in Gombe by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

They were arraigned on a two-count charge bordering on conspiracy for converting the money into their property. They all pleaded guilty and prosecuting counsel, O. Israel, urged the court to convict them accordingly.

Defence counsel, L.A. Haruna on his part pleaded on behalf of his clients to temper justice with mercy as the convicts were first-time offenders and didn’t waste the “precious time” of the court and pleaded guilty on the day of their arraignment and that they had made some restitution and intended to fully restitute the whole amount.

Justice Biatrice, thereafter, pronounced them guilty and convicted them to pay fine of N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) each following the allocutus by the defence counsel.

They were also ordered to restitute the remaining amount to Gombe State Government within six months.

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