Lukumanu Sani Waziri, an accountant at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH) in Sokoto, has been found guilty of corruption and abuse of office by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC).
Waziri was convicted of using the Government Integrated Financial Information System (GIFMIS) to obtain unauthorized access to more than N60 million in public funds.
Waziri and two other people were charged by ICPC in 2021 on a nine-count accusation of fraud and corruption before Justice M. Abdulgafar of the Federal High Court, Sokoto Division, under charge number: FHC/ICPC/122021.
In his ruling, Justice Abdulgafar found Waziri guilty of seven of the nine charges against him and imposed the appropriate penalty.
”In the course of the trial, ICPC’s Prosecutor, Dr Osuobeni Ekoi Akponimisingha, led evidence before the court on how Waziri, a designated user of GIFMIS in the Teaching Hospital altered financial records and facilitated the transfer of multimillions of government money into private accounts, including his own and that of one Monday Michael Adejo.
”Waziri was also said to have, without authorization, changed the bank account details meant for state taxes of Kogi, Edo, Bauchi and Zamfara States to that of Monday Adejo Michael where the taxes due to the aforementioned States were fraudulently diverted to.”
One of the charges against the accountant stated, “That sometime in April 2020 or thereabout, you, Lukumanu Sani Waziri (M), and Monday Michael Adejo (M) conspired among yourselves to take the sums of N6,127,465.75, N8,552,824.60, and 5,939,666.49 totaling N20,619,956.8 (Twenty Million, Six Hundred and Nineteen Thousand, Nine Hundred and Fifty-Six Naira, Eight Kobo) from the Government Integrated Financial Information System into Monday Michael Adejo’s First Bank Account with account number: 30142906334. Lukumanu Sani Waziri should have reasonably known that these funds were part of the proceeds of an unlawful act, specifically corruption and fraud, and as a result, you committed an offense against Sections 18 and 15 (1) (d) and Section 15 (3) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 (as amended).