Professor, Two Others Sentenced To 40yrs In Prision Without Option Of Fine

An Ibadan high court has sentenced a professor of Agriculture, Benjamin Ogunmodede, to 40 years’ imprisonment without an option of fine.

Prof. Ogunmodede and two others, Zacchaeus Tejumola and Adenekan Clement, were charged with 16-count on conspiracy, unlawful conversion, stealing of school subvention and others in 2011.

The professor is the former director-general of Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IART), Apata, Ibadan, while Tejumade and Adenekan were chief accountant and employee of the institution.

They were said to have diverted over N177m from the N600m received as subvention from the Federal Government to pay workers’ salaries and execute projects.

Justice Ayo Emmanuel sentenced the accused to four years per charge. The court was told that they did not follow due process in executing some of the projects.

According to the judgment, the defendants said they used part of the money to bribe members of the House of Representatives and officials of the Federal Ministry of Finance after they facilitated the release of the fund.