A former chairman of the Governing Council of Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, who in 2017 was nominated to serve on the board of Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Dr Saad Alanamu, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for accepting a bribe.
A statement from the ICPC spokesperson, Rasheedat Okoduwa, said the Chief Executive Director of Namylas Nig. Ltd, Salman Sulaiman, was also sentenced to 12 years in prison for a similar offence.
The statement added that Alanamu was not considered for the ICPC board position because of allegation of corruption which the commission was investigating at the time. He was charged to court by the commission for collecting N5m kickback from Sulaiman who is a contractor and his friend.
The statement said, “The convicts had earlier been arraigned before Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar of Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin on an eight counts bordering on bribery. The offences contravened Sections 8 (1) (a), 9 (1) (a), 10 (a) (i), 18 (b), 19 and 22 (1) (a) (i) and punishable under sections 8 (1) (a) (ii), 9 (1) (b), 10 (a) (ii), 18 (d), 19, and 22 (6) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 respectively. They had pleaded not guilty to all the charges brought against them.
“Sulaiman was accused of bribing a government official when he paid N5m into Alanamu’s Guaranty Trust Bank account as a reward for the award of contract to his company. Counsel to ICPC had averred that Namylas Nig. Ltd had submitted falsified and doctored documents during the bidding process.
“The court was also informed of how Alanamu ensured that the contract for the construction and furnishing of an auditorium in Kwara State Polytechnic was awarded to a company belonging to his friend at the cost of N182.369m when the company was not qualified to execute the contract.
“Having considered the totality of evidence adduced by the prosecution in the course of the trial, and recognising that it had discharged the burden of proof placed upon it by law beyond reasonable doubt, the trial judge in his ruling found Dr Alanamu guilty and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment on counts 2 and 3, and five years with hard labour on counts 1, 4, and 5, without an option of fine. He was also ordered to pay the sum of N25m pursuant to Section 20 of the ICPC law.”
On his part, the court found Sulaiman guilty on counts 5 and 6, and sentenced him to five and seven years imprisonment respectively. All the sentences are to run concurrently.
