PHCN workers jailed 10yrs for bribery

Lanre Adewole, Abuja - 25.02.2008

FOR demanding a N250,000 bribe, two staff members of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) attached to Lafia, Nasarawa State, have been sentenced to five years imprisonment each without an option of fine.

Ethelbert Nzerem and Yusuf Lamidi were convicted by a Nasarawa High Court of a three-count charge of violating the provisions of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000.

The convicts got two years each on two counts and one on the third, though they would spend three years in jail because the terms are to run concurrently.

The duo were arraigned by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) following an allegation that they demanded a bribe from a hotelier, Mr Edmund Ekpe, who reported them to the anti-graft agency.

A statement from the commission signed by Sina Babasola of the Public Enlightenment Department stated that “the accused persons, Mr. Ethelbert Nzerem and Mr. Yusuf Lamidi, were convicted at the High Court 5 in Lafia, Nasarawa State, when Justice Isa Ramalan of the court found them guilty of contravening sections 8, 10, 19 and 26 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000.

“The trial of Mr. Nzerem and Mr. Lamidi started in July 2006, after they were arrested in a sting operation carried out by operatives of ICPC for allegedly demanding a bribe of N100,000 from Mr. Edmund Ekpe, the owner of Prince Palace Hotel in Marraba, Nasarawa State, in the course of performing their duties as staff of PHCN.

“The duo, after discovering that Mr. Ekpe owed PHCN to the tune of N800, 000 due to electric meter bypass at his hotel, demanded for a bribe of N250,000 for which they would help him cancel the electricity bill he owed.

“After much negotiation between the accused persons and the hotel owner, he agreed to pay the N100,000 demanded as a bribe, but petitioned ICPC on the behaviour of the two staff members of PHCN, which led to their arrest in a sting operation by operatives of ICPC.

“The prosecution counsel of ICPC, led by Mr. Paul Ahmed Bassi, had arraigned the two accused persons on a seven-count charge at the high court, but after a series of hearing of the matter, Justice Ramalan convicted the accused persons of three-count charges, striking out the other charges on the grounds of duplication.