N319m Fraud: Appeal Court Rejects Ex-FCTA Director’s Bail Bid, Grants Accelerated Appeal Hearing

The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal has dismissed an application by a convicted former Director of Finance and Administration at the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Mr Garba Mohammed Dukku, seeking release from prison custody.

Dukku, who served under the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC) of the FCTA, is currently serving a 24-year jail term for diverting N319 million in public funds. He was convicted by the Federal High Court in Abuja on charges bordering on corruption and money laundering.

Trial Justice James Omotosho convicted him on a six-count charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/608/2022, filed by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

The anti-graft agency had proved that Dukku, between 2012 and 2013, diverted N318.25 million belonging to the AMMC into his personal Fidelity Bank account through several transactions.

The funds, according to the ICPC, included transfers of N56.25 million, N71 million, N53 million, N54 million, N46 million and N36.3 million, which were allegedly moved to bureau de change operators for unauthorised purposes.

During trial, Dukku claimed that the money was transferred to his superiors, but the court rejected the defence, ruling that there was no credible evidence to support the claim.

The trial court sentenced him to 24 years imprisonment and also gave him the option of paying fines amounting to about N1.6 billion, calculated as five times the amount involved in each count.

Dukku later approached the Court of Appeal seeking bail pending the determination of his appeal against the conviction and sentence.

However, a three-member panel of the appellate court unanimously dismissed the application, holding that the convict failed to present any exceptional circumstance to justify his release.

The court ruled that nothing placed before it was sufficient to persuade it to exercise discretion in his favour and consequently rejected the bail request for lacking merit.

The appellate court, however, granted an accelerated hearing of Dukku’s substantive appeal challenging his conviction and sentence.