Former Imo State Transportation Commissioner laz Anyanwu was sentenced to three years in prison on Tuesday.
Anyanwu, who served during the term of former governor Rochas Okorocha, was found guilty after being found guilty of charges brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
A judge, K.A. Lewanya, said the prison sentence would be carried out at the same time when sentencing the former commissioner.
The judge said the prisoners were found guilty of fraud, looting of public funds and theft. The judiciary said the former commissioner was found guilty of diverting N180 million of state funds into private company accounts. He was a major shareholder and sole signatory when he was chairman of the Transport Commission and Interim Commission of his IMO National Transport, ITC in violation of sections 12 and 19 of the ICPC Act 2020.
The judge held that Anyanwu by that action had violated the Public Procurement Act, abused his office and used his office to gain undue advantage in his dealings during his tenure as the commissioner for transport and the chairman interim committee of the Imo state transport company, ITC.
The judge said that the EFCC lawyer, Micheal Ani, was able to proof beyond reasonable doubt that when Anyanwu was commissioner for transport between 2015 and 2019, he transferred the sum of N100 million from the ITC account to his private company named Oma Oil Industries Limited, which is against section 12 and 19 of the ICPC Act 2020 for a public servant.
The judge also said that the ex-commissioner signed off another N80 million from government coffers directly to his private company account with the motive that he wanted to procure some vehicles for ITC without due process and recourse to the public procurement act.
The judge, while sentencing him to prison, said the former commissioner looted the sum of N180 million found in his account said to be for the state transport company.
