JUST IN: Court affirms 12-year jail term for ICPC board nominee, Saadu Alanamu
NEWS DIGEST – The Court of Appeal sitting in Ilorin has upheld the judgement of a High Court which jailed a former Chairman of the Governing Council of Kwara State Polytechnic, Dr Saadu Alanamu, for 12 years.
A statement signed on Wednesday by the spokesperson for the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Rasheedat Okoduwa, said Alanamu was nominated into the Board of the commission in 2017 but was later dropped on an allegation of corruption.
The statement said that he had earlier been found guilty of collecting N5m bribe from a contractor friend of his, Salman Sulaiman, as a reward for the award of a contract to his (Sulaiman) company.
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During earlier arraignment by the ICPC before Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar of Kwara State High Court, Sulaiman, who is the Chief Executive Director of Namylas Nigeria Ltd, was accused of bribing a government official in the sum of N5m. 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 the company belonging to his friend at the cost of N182.369m, when the company was not qualified to execute the contract.
Okoduwa said, “Dissatisfied with the sentence, the former Governing Council Chairman approached the appellate court, urging it to quash the judgment of the trial court.
“Having listened to the arguments from both the prosecution and the defence counsel, the Court of Appeal upheld the judgement of the lower court and dismissed Alanamu’s appeal for lack of merit.”
