The Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced former Minister of Power, Mr Saleh Mamman, to 75 years imprisonment in absentia over alleged ₦33.8 billion money laundering offences.
Justice James Omotosho, who convicted Mamman on all 12 counts filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), ordered that the sentences shall run consecutively and not concurrently.
The judge noted that Mamman’s absence from court amounted to what he described as a deliberate attempt to frustrate the course of justice.
He agreed with EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, that although the defendant was not present in court, the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015, empowered the court to proceed with sentencing in his absence.
Justice Omotosho held that Mamman cannot claim to have suffered a miscarriage of justice.
The court sentenced the former minister to seven years imprisonment each on Counts one, two, three, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11 and 12 without option of fine.
He also handed down a three-year sentence on Count 4 with an option of a N10 million fine, and a two-year imprisonment on Count 5 without option of fine.
The judge ordered that all sentences shall run consecutively, with the jail term to commence from the date of Mamman’s arrest.
Justice Omotosho further directed all security agencies within and outside Nigeria, including INTERPOL, to arrest Mamman wherever he is found and hand him over to the Nigerian Correctional Service to serve his sentence.
The court also granted the application of the prosecution for final forfeiture of Mamman’s two Abuja properties in choice locations, as well as funds in various currencies recovered by anti-graft agencies.
In addition, the judge ordered that the shortfall between recovered assets and the ₦22 billion proven by the prosecution—out of the ₦33.8 billion allegedly diverted from the Zungeru and Mambilla Hydro Electric Power projects—be refunded by the convict.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Justice Omotosho had, on May 7, convicted Mamman in absentia over the money laundering allegations.
Although Mamman was not present in court during the proceedings, the judge held that the EFCC had proved the 12-count amended charge beyond reasonable doubt.
