Court of Appeal Sentences Kebbi Accountant-General to 70 Years in Prison for N1.6bn Fraud

The Kebbi State Accountant General, Mr. Mohammed Dakingari has been sentenced to 70 years imprisonment over N1.6 billion fraud by the Appeal Court in the state.
The Economic and Financial Crime Commission, the EFCC had appealed a ruling by a Kebbi State High Court
The lower court in Kebbi had earlier discharged and acquitted Dakingari, but Court of Appeal today overruled it and upheld the appeal of the EFCC
The Economic and Financial Crime Commission, the EFCC made the disclosure via the social media, the twitter.

The anti-graft agency tweeted:

Mr. Dakingari, was charged by the EFCC over allegedly used of a company that is wholly owned by him, Beal Construction Nigeria Limited, to award various contracts to himself.

Mr. Dakingari’s stake in Beal Construction is contrary to civil service regulation which forbids serving officers from owning businesses. But investigators from the anti-graft agency stumbled on evidence that showed Mr. Dakingari owns Beal Construction, which he runs with his sons and brothers as co- directors.

Findings at the Corporate Affairs Commission show that Mohammed Bashir Mohammed, Anwal Sadat, and Nasir Mohammed, all sons of the Accountant General, are directors of the company while two of his brothers, Abduallahi Mohammed and Habibu Mohammed, are the other two directors.

The construction company operates two accounts at EcoBank and Unity Bank with Mr. Dakingari and Yusuf Musa, managing director of the construction company, as signatories to the accounts. However, Mr. Dakingari was discovered to operate with two signatures, one in his official capacity as accountant general of the state and the other as owner of Beal Construction Company Limited.

Analysis of the accounts revealed a total credit of N1.3 billion between May 2012 and September 2013, with most of the receipts coming from the office of the Accountant General and the Kebbi State Ministry of Finance.

Some of the contract executed for the state for which Beal Construction Company received huge payments include the supply of furniture to 66 secondary schools in Kebbi State valued at N987, 000 million; the connection of water and drainage system at Kebbi Central Mosque valued at N110 million and the building and partitioning of Mohammed Maira Secondary School valued at N247 million.

Sources close to the investigations reveal that Mr. Dakingari and his accomplices would be arraigned in court as soon as investigations are concluded.