Calistus Obi, former NIMASA DG, handed seven-year jail term

Calistus Obi, former acting director general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

Mojisola Olatoregun of the federal high court in Lagos delivered the judgement on Monday.

The judge, however, gave him the option of paying a N42 million fine.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had charged Obi to court on allegations of N136 million fraud.

Olatoregun had found him guilty of money laundering and converting the agency’s funds to personal use at a court sitting that held on May 23.

The EFCC had charged Obi to court alongside Dismass Alu Adoon, a former staff of NIMASA.

At one of the court sittings, Rotimi Oyedepo, the prosecuting counsel, had urged the court to impose the maximum punishment of 14 years imprisonment on Obi.

This, he said, would serve as a deterrent to other civil servants.

President Muhammadu Buhari had appointed Obi as the acting director general of NIMASA two months after he assumed office in 2015.

Patrick Akpobolokemi, Obi’s predecessor, had been fired after the president ordered the dissolution of boards and the sack of all heads of federal government parastatals.

Akpobolokemi is currently being prosecuted for corruption while in office.