Mr. John Yakubu Yusuf, a former Federal Director of Pensions (FDP), was sentenced to six years in jail and ordered to refund the government N22.9 billion on Wednesday in Abuja by the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
Yusuf confessed to misappropriating N22.9 billion from the Police Pension Fund before a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court.
In an appeal filed by Yusuf, Justice Tijjani Abubakar confirmed the verdict of the Court of Appeal, which sentenced him to six years in jail and ordered him to repay the huge sum in 2018.
The apex court held that Yusuf and others engaging in fraudulent practices must be told through court judgments that it was no longer business as usual and he was consequently handed two years imprisonment for each of the three-count charges.
The former federal pension director’s plea to overturn the appellate court’s six-year sentence was frivolous, vexatious, and without substance, according to Justice Abubakar.
He also believed that the convicted Director’s victims deserved reparation, which could only be obtained via justice.
Yusuf had taken the Federal Government to the Supreme Court in an attempt to have the six-year sentence imposed on him by the Court of Appeal overturned.
The former pensions director, who is serving a six years jail term, at the Kuje Custodial Centre, had also asked the Supreme Court to set aside the whopping sum of N22.9 billion he was ordered to refund the government by the Court of Appeal in the 2018 verdict.
He was sent to prison in 2018 by the Court of Appeal in Abuja upon being found guilty of defrauding the Federal Government to the tune of N22.9billion through Police Pensions.
In his appeal to the Supreme Court, he asked the court to overturn his conviction and the requirement that he refund N22.9 billion.
His major complaint was that the Court of Appeal’s judgment was unfair.
