Ex-NNPC Boss Bags 2 years Jail Term

Court sentences ex-NNPC, NPDC Boss

Abiye Membere, a former Group Executive for Exploration and Production at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and Victor Briggs, a former Managing Director at the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), were both sentenced to two years in prison for official corruption by a Federal High Court in Abuja.

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba ruled on Tuesday that Membere and Briggs were guilty of accepting Mercedes Benz and Range Rover cars as gifts from a businessman named Jide Omokore.

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Omokore’s companies, Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited and Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited, were given contracts by the government of Goodluck Jonathan to lift and sell crude oil.

The judge said that the evidence from the prosecution showed that Briggs and Membere took gifts as public officials from people who had contracts with their employer, the Federal Government.

Justice Dimgba found Membere and Briggs guilty of official corruption under Section 98 of the Criminal Code Act. He did this by using the rules of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA).

He thought that it was against the law for them to take the Mercedes Benz and Range Rover cars that Omokore gave them as gifts.

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After convicting them on Tuesday, Justice Dimgba told the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to keep them in custody and bring them back to court the next day for sentencing.

Justice Dimgba sentenced Membere and Briggs to two years in prison each, but they could pay a fine of N2 million each instead.

He did this after hearing the lawyers and witnesses they called to testify about their character ask for leniency.

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