The Supreme Court has upheld the judgment of the Kwara State High Court against the former Chairman of the Governing Council of the Kwara State Polytechnic, Dr Saadu Alanamu.
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court struck out all the grounds of appeals raised by Alanamu as “incompetent, misconceived and lacking in merit”. Accordingly, the apex court affirmed the conviction and sentencing of Alanamu to 12 years imprisonment based on the same fact handed down to him by the appellate and trial courts.
Dr Alanamu, before his conviction by the lower court, was nominated in 2017, into the Board of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) before he was dropped following allegations of corruption.
He was investigated by ICPC on allegations of receiving a N5million bribe from a contractor as a kickback for the award of contracts and found guilty by Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar, who sentenced him to 12 years imprisonment.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, Dr Alanamu approached the Court of Appeal, urging it to set aside the judgment of the trial court.
However, having listened to the arguments from both the prosecution and defence counsel, the appellate court upheld the judgment of the lower court and dismissed Alanamu’s appeal for lack of merit.
Still not satisfied with the ruling of the Court of Appeal, the former Governing Council Chairman approached the Supreme Court on four grounds of appeal, to upturn the judgments against him by the trial and appellate court.
His counsel, Professor Amuda Kanike, SAN, had argued at the Supreme Court that the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, under which the convict was tried had been purportedly repealed by ICPC Act, 2003.
Notwithstanding the argument of the learned silk, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the judgment of the trial and appellate court dismissing the appeal for lack of merit.
