A Nigerian former state governor was on Monday found guilty and sentenced to five years in jail for corruption, marking one of the first high-profile convictions in President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-graft war.
James Bala Ngilari was convicted of breaching due process in the award of a 167.8-million naira ($527,000, 497,000 euros) contract for the procurement of 25 cars.
The politician from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was governor of the northeastern state of Adamawa from October 2014 to May 2015.
He had stepped up from deputy governor after the impeachment of his boss, Murtala Nyako, on corruption allegations. He is still facing charges in a separate trial.
Judge Nathan Musa found Ngilari guilty of all but one of the charges against him and did not give him the option of paying a fine.
“It is my hope that his conviction and sentence will serve as a deterrent to serving governors,” he added.
Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), charged Ngilari last September with 19 counts in connection with the “fraudulent award of contract”.
Ngilari’s lawyer Samuel Toni pleaded for leniency because of his client’s “invaluable contribution when he was the governor of the state during the trying moment of (the Boko Haram) insurgency”.
The Islamist group overran large parts of Adamawa state throughout 2014 as it captured swathes of territory in Nigeria’s remote northeast.
Ngilari told reporters as he was taken to a prison van that the judgement was flawed and he would appeal.
Buhari was elected two years ago on a pledge to tackle endemic corruption and the plunder of state funds by corrupt politicians and public officials.
The main opposition PDP, however, has accused him of conducting a political witch-hunt because most of those arrested and charged were party members or served in the previous administration.
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