A former Director General of the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, Prof. Benjamen Ogunmodede, was on Tuesday sentenced to 40 years’ imprisonment without an option of fine by a Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan, Oyo State, for mismanaging funds meant for the payment of salaries and execution of projects in the school.
Two workers at the account section of the institution, Zacheus Tejumola and Adenekan Clement, were jailed along with Ogunmodede. The trio had been arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in 2011 on 16 counts bordering on conspiracy, unlawful conversion and stealing of school subvention, among others. Justice Ayo Emmanuel, who gave the ruling, sentenced the convicts to four years’ imprisonment on each of the counts they were found guilty of.
The judge, however, ordered that they would spend the jail terms concurrently. Ogunmodede and others were accused of diverting N177m out of a subvention of N600m released by the Federal Government for the school. The sum (N177m) was said to have been spent without due process. In their defence, the convicts claimed that a huge part of the amount was used to bribe members of House of Representatives and some workers of the Federal Ministry of Finance who facilitated the release of the fund for the research institute.
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