Ex-perm sec jailed five years for N14m theft

AN Ikeja Special Offence Court on Thursday sentenced a former Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Clement Illoh to five years  imprisonment for stealing.

Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo convicted Illoh of theft of N14 million belonging to the defunct Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programe, (SURE-P).

He is also to make restitution to the federal government to the tune of N14 million.

Illoh was convicted of two out of the three-count charge, bordering on stealing by conversion of property to the tune of N14 million, brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The convict was initially arraigned on October 16, 2017 by the EFCC.

EFCC prosecutor, Rotimi Oyedepo, had told the court that Illoh, while serving in acting capacity, stole the sum of N14 million from the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 279(1)(b) & 285 (6) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State No,11, 2011.

Illoh who, was responsible for supervising numerous programmes of the government, including SURE-P, was accused of awarding fictitious contracts to himself through his company, Clement and Bob Associate, and friends.

Earlier, in his final address, Oyedepo had told the court “If there is anybody that will deal anyhow with money, it should not be somebody who has risen to that status.

“My lord, a permanent secretary of a ministry who was aware that the money was meant for his ministry, prevented the transfer of this money to the account of his ministry known to government.

“We asked him if there was any contract between Clement and Bob (Illoh’s private company) and the ministry, he said, ‘No’.

“He receives salary through an official account. Why didn’t he nominate the account of his ministry or his salary account? Why did he use his private company account?

“We only brought N14 million here (high court). A public servant like him had N646 million in his account.

“There were a lot of people and companies depositing money into the account, and we recovered N600 million”.