Former Rector of Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku, Dr. Edna Mogekwu, has been sentenced to
25 – months imprisonment for refusing to honor invitations on allegations of corruption from the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
3 other principal officers of the institution, who were also convicted, were charged before Justice Marshal Umukoro of the Delta State High Court, Asaba, by ICPC over their failure to appear before investigators to clear themselves of allegations of corruption.
The principal officers convicted alongside the rector by the court to one-month prison term each were a former Registrar, Collins Onyenwenu; a former Bursar, Andy Ughusuena, and a former Director of Works of the Polytechnic, Joseph Idabor.
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ICPC had earlier filed a 5-count charge against the convicts before Justice Umukoro, in which it accused them of repeatedly refusing to honor invitations from the commission.
ICPC Counsel, Ogochukwu Iwoba, had told the court that the rector and her accomplices, who were under investigation for acts of corruption by the commission failed to appear for interrogations when they were required.
A statement by the ICPC said the offenses, allegedly committed in 2015, also consists of their refusal to honor an order to produce documents required by investigators of the commission, contrary to Section 28 (1) (b) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under Section 28 (10) of the same Act.
Justice Umukoro, at the conclusion of the trial, found them guilty on four out of five counts and therefore sentenced the trio of the Registrar, Bursar, and Director of Works to one-month imprisonment accordingly.
The rector was found guilty on counts one, two, and three out of the five counts by the court.
Justice Umukoro ruled that she would, therefore, serve one-year imprisonment for counts two and three and one month’s jail term for count one. The sentences will run concurrently, the court ruled.
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