Court jails Borno prosecutor for soliciting N7m bribe

Justice Umaru Fadawu of the Borno State High Court, Maiduguri, has sentenced a prosecuting counsel with the Federal State Ministry of Justice, Zanna Dalhatu to 18 months in prison for soliciting N7 million bribe.

Dalhatu’s conviction followed his arraignment on January 10, 2019, by the Maiduguri Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

He had pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against him and was sentenced on Monday without an option of fine.

The EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said in a statement on Tuesday that the lawyer’s journey to prison started when he demanded N7m bribe and also attempted to obtain the said sum from Shuaibu Mohammed, the Chief Accountant of Borno State Road Maintenance Agency to facilitate the termination of a case against a worker of the agency.

He was subsequently trailed and arrested in the process of collecting the bribe.

While the EFCC presented three witnesses during the trial, the defence counsel, Zanna Hamza, made a “no case submission,” which the court threw out and ordered that he should open his defence.

Not satisfied with the ruling, the defendant approached the Appeal Court, Jos Division, which upheld the Borno State High Court’s ruling on the no-case submission.

Upon the amendment of the charge by the prosecution, Dalhatu pleaded guilty and was convicted and sentenced accordingly.