Flour mills ex-GM bags seven-year jail term in Borno
Flour mills ex-GM bags seven-year jail term in Borno
By Njadvara MUSA, Maiduguri
The Appeal Court sitting in Gombe has sentenced the former Maiduguri Four Mills General Manager (GM), Ma’aji Shettima Arfo to seven years jail term.
Arfo was sentenced for misappropriating N86.1 million belonging to the Borno State Government and Flour Mills.
Justice Haruna Mshelia of the High Court 3, in Maiduguri, had sentenced the accused to 28 years imprisonment for the alleged execution of N86.1 million contracts.
Arfo, however, filed an appeal case at the Appeal Court that sat last Friday in Gombe, Gombe state.
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He was, therefore, charged with a six-count by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for alleged abuse of office and conferring undue advantage on himself.
The charge sheet also showed that ex-GM, between 2014 and 2020, engaged in multiple frauds in violation of Sections 12 and 19 of the ICPC Act, 2000, punishable under relevant sections of the Act.
One of the charges reads: “Arfo awarded multiple contracts to Falkwat Multilinks Limited, a private company where he was a director, to supply diesel and maize to Maiduguri Flour Mills.”
Counsel to Commission, Anas Kolo told the court that the convict in October 2015, awarded an N4.9 million contract to Falkwat Multilinks to supply 40,000 litres of diesel to the Mills.
The court further heard how Arfo, a civil servant, also awarded several contracts between 2016 and 2017 to his private company for supplying maize to the Mills.
“He authorized the payments of N42.1m to his company in July 2016 for the supply of 386.45 metric tons of maize,” reads one of the charges.
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Besides, it added that there was another N23 million supply of 306.94 tons of maize to the same company in March 2016.
The ICPC Spokesperson, Azuka Ogugua, also stated, yesterday (Sunday), in Maiduguri that Arfo was convicted for yet another offence when he approved the payment of N16m to Falkwat Multilinks to supply 217.45 metric tons of maize.
According to her; “Justice Mshelia at the end of the trial found the general manager guilty on four counts out of the six preferred against the accused.
She said that Arfo was sentenced to seven years in jail term on each count.
The Judge, therefore ruled that the prison terms will run concurrently.
