A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Wednesday handed a five-year jail-term to a former executive director of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Captain Ezekiel Bala Agaba.
Agaba was convicted for laundering about N1.5 billion while in office.
He was in charge of Maritime, Safety and Shipping, and was said to have looted the money from the agency from 2013 to 2015.
The former Executive Director and nine others – including a former director-general of the agency, Patrick Akpobolokemi – were arraigned before the court in 2015 for an alleged N687, 294, 680.00 fraud.
The money, belonging to NIMASA, had been released for the implementation of Voluntary International Maritime Organisation Member State Audit Scheme (VIMSAS).
One of the counts reads: “That you, Patrick Ziadeke Akpobolokemi, Captain Ezekiel Bala Agaba and Vincent Udoye, between the 30th day of October, 2014 and the 6th day of May, 2015 in Lagos within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with a dishonest intent converted to your own use the sum of N346, 844, 680.00 NIMASA released to you for the implementation of Voluntary International Maritime Organisation Member State Audit Scheme (VIMSAS).”
The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against them.
In view of their pleas, the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, urged the court to allow him to present his witness, Charles, a Senior Administrative Offcer with NIMASA, in the matter.
Giving his testimony, Ekene Charles, who worked as personal assistant to Agaba, revealed to the court that Akpobolokemi, in 2014, set up a Committee on VIMSAS and made Agaba its chairman.
He said the committee members included staff from various departments within the agency, stakeholders and consultants from outside the agency.
“After the committee was set up, an account was opened for VIMSAS with Zenith Bank and I was asked by the chairman of the Committee to draw up budgets. Also, various sub-committees came up with their budgets,” he said.
