A former Plateau state governor and senator representing Plateau Central, Joshua Dariye, has purchased the nomination form of the ruling All Progressives Party (APC) from prison.
The lawmaker obtained the nomination form for his re-election through his personal assistant, Itauna Dinka, on Friday, September 7.
Tthe senator was on 12 June sentenced to 16 years in prison by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
Justice Adebukola Banjoko, who gave the ruling, held that the former governor would serve a two-year and a 14-year jail terms concurrently but did not give him an option of a fine.
In 2007, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) charged Dariye with money laundering.
The lawmaker was accused of diverting N1.126bn from the Plateau government’s ecological funds.
Dariye was said to have operated Ebenezer Reitner Ventures, an unregistered company through which he diverted the said funds.
In her ruling, Justice Banjoko had said: “I can’t imagine a brazen act of looting as in this case.”
“I welled up while reading (the judgement) thinking of the victims, it is a litany of woes. They were adults making rational choices. More importantly, I think what touches me the most, your family, they are victims.
“Having found the defendant guilty of these counts of criminal breach trust and criminal appropriation, the court sentences you to two years for criminal breach of trust and 14 years for criminal appropriation.”
In July, the seats of two deceased lawmakers were declared vacant by the Nigerian Senate but Dariye’s seat was not declared vacant despite the fact that he has been sentenced to 14 years in prison.
