Supreme Court affirms 10 year jail sentence for former Gov of Plateau state, Joshua Dariye

The Supreme Court has affirmed a 10-year jail sentence handed to former governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye on Friday, March 12, 2021.

This was after he was convicted for criminal misappropriation and criminal breach of trust.

Dariye was convicted for reportedly looting N2 billion public funds during his tenure as Plateau State governor between 1999 and 2007. Elected as the senator representing Plateau Central in the Nigerian Senate in 2015, he was however sentenced in June 2018 but still completed his tenure as a senator from jail in June 2019.

Mr Dariye was convicted and originally sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment on charges of criminal breach of trust and two years’ jail term for criminal misappropriation by a federal high court in Abuja on June 12, 2018.

After an appeal against his judgment, the Court of Appeal in Abuja on November 16, 2021, reduced the 14 years to 10 years.

The five-man panel of the Supreme court headed by Mary Odili on Friday, March 12, 2021, upheld the Dariye’s conviction in respect of criminal breach of trust which attracted the 10-year jail term.

In a publication cited on Lindaikejisblog, his conviction for criminal misappropriation was quashed, but it had no impact on his overall number of years of imprisonment as it attracted two years’ imprisonment.