Police Pension Director To Pay N750,000 For Stealing N32.8bn

In what appears to be anti-climax to a criminal trial, an Abuja High Court yesterday convicted and sentenced one of the accused persons in the N32.8 billion police pension scam, Mr. John Yakubu Yusufu, to two years imprisonment, but with a fine option of N750, 000 to regain his freedom.

Justice Talba Mohammed delivered the judgement after Yusufu, who had earlier pleaded not guilty alongside his co-accused, changed his earlier stand and pleaded guilty on three counts out of the amended 20-count charge brought against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

 Yusufu, who was a former director in police pension department, pleaded guilty to counts 18, 19 and 20 where he was alleged to have connived with Mr. Essai Dangabar, Atiku Abubakar Kigo, Ahmed Inuwa Wada, Mrs. Veronica Ulonma, Sani Habila Zira, Mrs Uzoma Cyril Attang and Mr. Christian Madubuike to convert N24.2 billion, N1.3 billion and N1.7 billion respectively, belonging to the pension office to their personal use.

According to the EFCC, the offence is punishable under Section 309 of the penal code, 2007.

The other accused persons, however, maintained their earlier plea in the matter, insisting that they were not guilty.

The amended charge introduced two more persons who were not included in the earlier charge. These are Cyril Attang and Christian Madubuike.

 Attang, who is still in service as director of Finance and Accounts in the Ministry of Communications, had been on a hide-and-seek game with the Code of Conduct Bureau, which had earlier dragged her before the Code of Conduct Tribunal on a five-count charge of having properties which her salary could not have been able to acquire.

She was a director at the Police Pension Office between 2007 and 2008. Within this period, she had worked closely with Yusufu and was discovered by the Bureau to have acquired choice properties in Lekki, Victoria Island and Ikoyi - all within Lagos metropolis - as well as in Abuja. One of her bank accounts which she maintained with a first generation bank, according to the charge slammed against her, had a credit balance of N500 million, whose source she could not explain. This charge was, however, later withdrawn by the Sam Saba-led Code of Conduct Bureau.