Tunde Oyesina 
The Supreme Court yesterday affirmed the conviction of former Plateau State Governor, Senator Joshua Dariye in the charges of criminal breach of trust brought against him by the Federal Government. Dariye’s jail term of 10 years imposed on him by the Court of Appeal was also upheld along with the conviction. The apex court however quashed the criminal misappropriation of funds against the former governor which earned him one year at the Court of Appeal.
Delivering judgment in an appeal filed by the former governor, Justice Helen Ogunwumiju held that the Court of Appeal and a high court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were right in their findings in the criminal breach of trust filed against the ex-governor under section 315 of the Penal Code. Justice Ogunwumiju, in the unanimous judgment prepared by Justice Ejembi Eko, which she read disagreed with the two lower courts in their findings on the misappropriation of funds and subsequently quashed it. The misappropriation of funds brought against Dariye under section 309 of the Penal Code carries a maximum of two years imprisonment. Justice Adebukola Banjoko of the high court of the FCT had in 2018 sentenced Dariye to 14 years in the criminal breach of trust, but was reduced to ten years by the Court of Appeal.
The two years imprisonment imposed on the former governor in the charges of miss- appropriation of funds was also reduced to one year by the appellate court. A five-man panel of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Mary Peter Odili, had, after hearing Dariye’s appeal on December 17, 2020, fixed judgment for March 12, 2021.
Dariye had by his appeal, prayed the apex court to upturn the November 16, 2018 judgment of the Court of Appeal, Abuja, which convicted him and sentenced him to 10 years for diverting public funds estimated at N1.162billion while he was the governor. A three-man panel of the Court of Appeal, led by Justice Stephen Adah, in its decision, upheld an earlier judgment by Justice Adebukola Banjoko of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), delivered on June 12, 2018.
