Court jails two PDP chieftains for receiving N142m to influence 2015 presidential election

The federal high court in Bauchi has sentenced Saleh Gamawa and Aminu Gadiya, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftains in the state, to three years in prison over a N142 million election bribe scam.

A two-count charge was preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The duo were accused of receiving the aforementioned sum to influence the outcome of the presidential election in Bauchi in 2015.

In a statement on Saturday, Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC spokesperson, said Hassan Dikko, a judge of the court, handed down the sentence to the convicts on March 2.

Uwujaren said the duo were first arraigned on June 4, 2018 and re-arraigned on October 16, 2018.

They had pleaded “not guilty” when they were arraigned on the charges.

In delivering judgment, the EFCC spokesperson quoted the judge as saying that the sum received by the duo is “well in excess of the legal threshold designated by law”.

“I consider your pleas that you have a family who will suffer in your absence, thus I will be lenient. However your offences must be punished appropriately to deter others in the society from perpetrating the same,” Dikko was quoted to have said.

The judge sentenced the defendants to two years imprisonment at the Bauchi Correction Service or a fine of N3 million each in lieu of imprisonment on count one.

Gamawa bagged another two years imprisonment or a fine of N3 million in lieu of imprisonment on count two.