Justice Mashood Abass of the Oyo State High Court yesterday sentenced the Provost and Bursar of the Federal Cooperative College, Eleyele Ibadan, Mrs Ruth Adehwe Aweto and Mr. Adekanye Komolafe to four years imprisonment without an option of fine. The judge found the two accused persons guilty of four-count charge out of eight- count charge of corrupt practices leveled against them by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and therefore, sentenced them to one year imprisonment on each of the counts.
The sentences are to run concurrently. According to the count charge : “ Ruth A. Aweto [Female] and Adekanye Komolafe [Male] between the months of October 2005 and January 2006 or thereabout ,at Ibadan , being public officers in the service of Federal Cooperative College, Ibadan did engage in a criminal conspiracy to use a document which is defective in material particular; to wit , budget proposal submitted by the college for the year 2006 to mislead the Federal Government of Nigeria by stating in the afore said budget proposal that 41 casual staff ers of the said college, who were entitled to N3,690,000 as total annual emolument for the year 2006 were permanent staffers of the said college and were therefore entitled to full benefits and emoluments as payable staff totaling N7,041,861.15 for the year 2006.”
Justice Abass, in his over three hours judgement said the prosecution had proved the case beyond reasonable doubt and that the two accused persons being the principal officers of the college betrayed the trust reposed in them by the Federal Government by using their positions to defraud the public by using money put in their custody by the Federal Government for smooth administration of the college.
