FORMER Governor of Plateau State, Senator Joshua Dariye bagged 14 years imprisonment two weeks ago from an Abuja High Court judge over financial misdemeanors. Before now, Dariye bestrode the politics of Plateau State like a colossus. Since 1999, he has been a recurring decimal in the politics of the state and factor to be reckoned with at every election. To many, he is a schemer and strategist per excellence and with a very potent survival instinct. All these lent credence to why his political associates and supporters dubbed him the Head Boy of Plateau Politics.
Senator Joshua Dariye, rightThe travail of Senator Dariye started in 2004 with the six months emergency rule slammed on the state by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo as a result of circle of killings in the state. The six months emergency rule was primarily declared following unfortunate killings in Yelwa Shendam during which over 100 people were killed in a day. The emergency rule was widely condemned, despite the reasons adduced by the Federal Government.
While the governor was on sabbatical for six months in London, he was arrested by the London Metropolitan Police for money laundering but was said to have escaped to Nigeria to avoid being detained. His return was fraught with controversy. There were people within and outside the state who moved to frustrate his return on political ground.
As the governor was trying to adjust after his return, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), which had been on his trail, moved against him in 2005 and accused him of conspiracy, abuse of office, official corruption, diversion of public funds, stealing and money laundering. He was so slammed along with eight members of the State House of Assembly. However, the Commission petitioned the House under the leadership Simon Lalong, who is presently the state governor, to investigate the allegation.
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The insinuation then was that the Commission was prompted to investigate Dariye with the intention to impeach him. Without much ado, the state assembly constituted a Special Committee of the House to investigate the purported allegations against Dariye under the chairmanship of the deputy speaker Hon. Usman Zumunta Musa. The head of operations of the EFCC then, Mr Ibrahim Lamorde, who later became the boss of the commission, testified before the House Special Committee that the name of eight members of the House in the petition featured prominently in the allegation along with Dariye and therefore requested that they all appear before him. Irked by the development, Plateau State House of Assembly challenged the EFCC and Lamorde on the invitation by instituting a case at a Federal High Court, Kaduna.
The House Special Committee later absolved the governor and others of all the allegations leveled against them. This infuriated the EFCC, whch perceived the allegations to be too grievous to be ignored. The Commission, in a commando like operation, launched a manhunt for the lawmakers, especially the hardliners, including the present governor of the state, Lalong, to coerce them to initiate impeachment against Dariye. Despite the perceived intimidation and harassment by the Commission, the members reportedly refused to yield to the biding to the EFCC. But six members later succumbed to the pressure and impeached the former governor, without mustering the mandatory two-thirds of the members required by the constitution. The way and manner the impeachment was carried out generated uproar both within and outside political circles across the country.
However, six month to the end of his tenure, the Court of Appeal reinstated Dariye to his governorship seat. The six months was a turbulent period in the political career of Dariye. The structure of the Peoples Democratic Party was taken away from him and his associates, the Federal Government also refused to release allocation to the state, and all attempts to maneuver his ways were frustrated by his political opponents with active connivance from the centre.
After his tenure in 2007, the EFCC eventually moved against him and dragged him to court, before then he moved to Labour Party for political relevance and contested for the Plateau Central Senatorial seat which he won. He later made a dramatic return to the PDP in a controversial manner. After APC won the 2015 gubernatorial in the state and presidential election, Dariye ditched PDP for APC, in a move political analysts perceived was a survival strategy and ploy to seek cover on the platform of the ruling party to thwart his trail at the hands of the EFFC.
Since 2007, EFCC’s efforts to prosecute the former governor and get him convicted were to no avail until the Supreme Court three years ago ordered the retrial of the former governor for alleged corruption. Twenty three-count charge of corruption was brought against him by the EFCC at a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court.
However, the trial which was stalled for over eight years due to Dariye’s alleged protracted attempts to prevent his prosecution. But after many years on the case, Justice Adebukola Banjoko ruled that Dariye was guilty of embezzling N1.162 billion ecological funds belonging to his state. He was charged to court by anti-graft agency, EFCC, in 2007. At the end of the trial last, he bagged 14 years imprisonment.
He was found guilty on 15 out of the 23-count criminal charge the EFCC preferred against him. The court said it was satisfied that the defendant, being a public officer, that had full dominion and control of ecological funds, the Federal Government released to Plateau State in 2001, converted and diverted same for his personal use. It held that the ex-governor criminally misappropriated funds and acted in violent breach of public trust and his oath of office. Nevertheless, the court discharged and acquitted the ex-governor on eight-count which it said was not sustained with sufficient evidence.
The judgment of Justice Banjoko was received with mix feelings by the people of Plateau State. No member of the APC was willing to comment on the issue. Some perceived the judgment as an extention of perceived persecution of Christians in the Middle Belt, alluding to the case of the former Taraba State governor Jolly Nyame. But many dismissed the sentiment.
Mr Garba Pwul (SAN), a Jos-based legal practitioner who at various times was on forefront of the case before he backed out described the sentence as “great lost’” to the people of Plateau Central senatorial district and the entire state.
“Jailing Dariye means Plateau Central has lost its seat and the entire state being incarcerated and cut from federal and political representation at the National Assembly. It is a minus to the Plateau State people, especially at this crucial period that the country would soon go to the polls to elect its leaders at all levels, ’’ Pwul lamented.
Chief John Mankilik, chairman PDP Plateau Central Elders Forum, described the sentence of Dariye as “very unfortunate and sad.” He appealed to the Federal Government to temper justice with mercy even though the judgment has been passed already. The forum urged the Federal Government to look at the contributions the former governor had made politically in the country.
“I feel sad about the judgment but be that as it may, the government should pursue its anti-corruption fight with fairness. We don’t want a situation whereby the corruption fight is vigorously being targeted at a particular region but there must be fairness in all ramification, ’’ Mankilik said.
To Chief Alexander Mwolwus, Dariye’s former Chief of Staff and PDP stalwart in Plateau, the jailing of Dariye was a “big minus ‘’ and “sad one’’ to the entire people of Plateau.
Mwolwus said that for the fact that he was not supporting corruption, the 14 years jail term is a “very hard one’’ for a man of his caliber, given his contribution to the political developments in the country.
A human right activist, Comrade Joseph Ibrahim, said it would be wrong for anyone to perceive the judgment as one of the targets against the Middle Belt or Plateau State, adding that the case had been on for eight years, while Dariye was not the first to be jailed and may not be the last. “The fight against corruption must start from somewhere. It is unfortunate that one of our own is among the first to taste the bitter pill of corruption consequence. However, those in government presently in Plateau need to be careful” he said.
But as opinion is divided over his incarceration, those angling to contest for the Plateau North Senatorial seat in 2019 see Dariye’s predicament as a blessing in disguise. The general impression was that as long as the former governor is interested in the seat, it will be an uphill task to unseat him in the Senate and moreover, he had indicated his intention to go back to the Senate for the third time before the judgment.
Sunday Tribune learnt that stalwarts of the party interested in the seat from the senatorial district in APC have started meeting while those in PDP also perceived his exit as a relief.
and then