Former Chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Chief Olabode George  and five others were on Monday found guilty of abuse of office, disobedience of a lawful order and conspiracy to commit an offence. They were sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment with no option of fine.  The sentence was contained in a judgment delivered by Justice Joseph Oyewole of a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos State.

The other five individuals are: former managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Architect Aminu Dabo; Captain O. Abidoye; Abdulahi Aminu Tafida; Zanna Maidaribe and Sule Aliu.   Justice Oyewole in delivering judgment on the 68 amended count charges preferred against the convicts,  said that all the charges were premised on four main offences: inflation of contracts, abuse of office, disobedience of a lawful order and conspiracy to commit an offence. He discharged and acquitted them on all the charges that bordered on inflation of contracts but found them guilty of all other charges on abuse of office, disobedience of a lawful order and conspiracy to commit an offence.

He dismissed the claims of the defence counsels that the Board of the NPA was an inanimate entity unknown to law. “The board of the NPA is inanimate but individuals that served there are tangible. The defendants acted as agents of NPA and should be individually held”, the Judge said.  He also found them guilty of contract splitting, an offence that came under the abuse of office.
 
They were also found guilty of not complying with a ministerial order on the review of the approving limit of the board of NPA in the granting of contracts. The total amount involved in the contract was N100million( One hundred million naira only).
 
The judgment lasted three and a half hours. The defence counsels represented by Mr, Tunji Ayanlaja, SAN, Dele Adesina, SAN and three others delivered different allocutus before the Judge made the final pronouncements. Ayanlaja pleaded with the Judge to consider the facts that the convicts were “first time offenders and that they only did a right thing in a wrong way”.
 
He also said that the counts where they were found guilty were technical in nature. “If public servants are held to technical offences, nobody will be ready to serve in public office”, Ayanlaja said. He went further to plead that since the suspects attended all the court sessions during trial, their sentence should be minimal and their punishment mild.
 
On his own part, Adesina admitted that the judgment had shown that “it is not business as usual and that a revolution of rebirth has started in the nation. Prosecution counsel, Festus Keyamo urged the Judge to strike a delicate balance between emotional appeals and the position of law in the matter. All these were taken into consideration before the Judge gave the judgment.
 
Chief Olabode Judge and the five others now convicted were arraigned on an original 168 count charges on August 8th , 2008. The charges were later amended to 68. The trial lasted more than 14 months. Series of claims have been made and fears expressed in the public on the capacity of the EFCC to secure their conviction. All these are now rested with the successful completion of the trial and the conviction of all the six suspects.