Former Kwara LG Boss Sentenced Over False Statement

A former Chairman of the Kaiama Local Government Council in Kwara, Alhassan Bagudu, has been sentenced to one-year imprisonment for making a false statement to an investigator.

Bagudu was dragged to high court sitting in Ilorin by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission on two counts bordering on making a false statement to its investigator.

The accused was said to have pleaded not guilty to the charge.

A statement on Thursday by the agency’s spokesperson, Azuka Ogugua, said during the trial, the ICPC counsel, Peace Arocha and Golden Iwuagwu, told the court how the former local government chairman purchased a used Toyota Prado SUV for his official use at the sum of N13m, whereas the approval was for a brand new vehicle.

Ogugua added that the court also heard how Bagudu claimed that the SUV was purchased by Quadrish Motors, while knowing the same to be false and thereby making a false statement to a constituted authority.

She said the action of the former chairman was in contravention of Section 25 (1) (b) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under the same Section.

The statement was titled, ‘ICPC secures conviction of former local government chairman’.

One of the charges read, “That you, Alhassan Yahaya Bagudu, sometime in April 2018 or thereabout at Ilorin, Kwara State, did knowingly made false statement to Adamu Lere Murtala, an investigating officer of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission in the exercise of his duties as an investigator when you asserted that the Toyota Prado SUV that was bought for your office as the Chairman of the Kaiama Local Government was supplied by Quadrish Motors when in actual fact the Toyota Prado SUV was not supplied by Quadrish Motors…”

The judge, M. AbdulGarfa, found Bagudu guilty and sentenced him to one-year imprisonment with an option of a N100,000 fine.