Court convicts NIMASA ex-Acting DG, aide over N136 million fraud

A Federal High Court, Lagos has convicted erstwhile Acting Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Calistus Obi.

Trial judge, Justice Mojisola Olatoregun, also convicted Mr. Alu Dismas, who was a personal assistant to Obi’s predecessor, Patrick Ziadeke Akpobolokemi, who himself is under trial.

The convicts were found by the court to have converted N136 million belonging to the agency in a charge levelled against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

She ordered that the convicts be remanded in prison custody pending their sentencing on May 28, 2019.

The anti-graft body had arraigned Obi and his co-conspirators in 2016 for conspiracy, conversion and laundering of N136 million.

Obi was charged alongside Dismas on an eight-count charge of conspiracy and money laundering.

Although the court discharged and acquitted the defendants of conspiracy for failure of the prosecutor to judiciously prove the allegation, it nevertheless, convicted the defendants of conversion and money laundering.