N1.1bn fraud: N100m Went Into Obasanjo’s Re-election Campaign, says Dariye

Former Plateau State Governor Joshua Dariye has said N100 million from the misappropriated N1.126 billion went into the campaign for the re-election of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Obasanjo was re-elected in 2003.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in 2007, had charged Dariye, who was governor from 1999 to 2007, with diversion of N1.126 billion from the Plateau State government’s ecological fund.

In 2018, a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court sentenced Dariye to 14 years imprisonment.

But a court of appeal in Abuja reduced the sentence to 10 years.

The Supreme Court also affirmed the conviction and the jail term of the appeal court in March 2021.

Speaking in an interview on Channels Television programme, “Newsnight” on Monday, Dariye gave a breakdown of how the money was spent.

According to him, a larger part of the money went into the state government’s account, and only N80 million went to the Ecological Fund.

“(The sum of) N800 million went to the Plateau State account; N100 million went to PDP Southwest and another N100 million went to the Obasanjo campaign organization; N80 million went to the ecological fund and then N66 million went to PDP Plateau State.

“What was missing was about N4 million, which is the commission of turnover.”

The former governor had also said his imprisonment was politically motivated.

Speaking on the condition of the correctional centres, Dariye said the facilities are not habitable and worsened the mindset of convicts instead of reforming them.

“The correctional centre is one republic that is a government on its own. They don’t have the best of facilities, I must say. It’s not habitable for human beings, and I think the Federal Government must have a look at it,” he said.