A former Minister of Water Resources, Sarah Ochekpe, on Tuesday, vowed to appeal the ruling of a Federal High Court sitting in Jos in which she and two others were sentenced to three months’ imprisonment.
Ochekpe insisted that she committed no offence to warrant her conviction.
The court presided over by Justice Musa Kurya sentenced Ochekpe alongside a former acting Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Plateau State, Raymond Dabo; and Evangelist Sunday Jitong, a former State Campaign Coordinator for ex-President Goodluck Jonathan to three months’ imprisonment.
The former minister and the two others were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in 2018 for allegedly collecting N450m from Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former Petroleum Resources Minister, to execute Jonathan’s re-election campaign in 2015.
The convicts were tried on charges bordering on conspiracy and money laundering.
The controversial fund, according to the EFCC, did not only pass through a financial institution.
The anti-graft agency argued that the fund exceeded the amount authorised by the law and thereby the convicts committed an offence contrary to the provision of sections 18 (a) and 16 (1), (d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2012 (as amended) and punishable under Section 16 (2), (b) of the same law.
Delivering judgment in the case on Tuesday, Justice Musa Kurya found the accused persons guilty and sentenced them to three months’ in prison with an option of N1m fine.
But counsel for the former minister, S. Oyawole, who spoke with journalists after the judgment, said the ruling would not stand and insisted that his clients did not commit any offence.
Oyawole stated, “The said money was paid through a financial institution. And the branch operations manager brought in by the EFCC as a witness admitted under cross examination that the bank was a financial institution and he dealt with our clients in his official capacity as a banker.
“To say that the accused did not go through a financial institution is a contradiction. Definitely, the judgment will be challenged.”
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