The Katsina State High Court has convicted and jailed Mr. Rabiu Musa Matazu, Director of Administration of the Sokoto Rima River Basin Development Authority (SRRBDA), for corruptly converting public funds to personal use.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) secured the suspect’s conviction, according to a statement released on Wednesday.
The Commission had arraigned Mr. Matazu in Suit No. KTH/7C/2022 before Honourable Justice Abbas Bawule of the Katsina State High Court on a four-count charge bordering on criminal breach of trust and abuse of office.
What Transpired in Court
At the resumption of proceedings, Rabiu Matazu pleaded not guilty to all the counts when they were read to him by the registrar.
The case proceeded to a full trial that lasted three years.
The ICPC prosecutor, Mr. Ibrahim Garba, informed the court that the convict received N305,000 from his subordinate, Mr. Lawal Dan Sarki, being rent proceeds from properties belonging to SRRBDA in Katsina State.
Rather than remitting the money into the agency’s account, Mr. Matazu was accused of misappropriating it for his personal benefit.
One of the charges against him read:
“That you, Rabiu Musa Matazu (m), sometime in October 2014 or thereabout within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, used your position as Director of Administration, Sokoto Rima River Basin Development Authority (SRRBDA), to confer unfair advantage upon yourself by receiving the total sum of ₦305,000 proceeds from rent collected on behalf of your agency, which you converted to your personal use and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.”
The defendant entered his defense and closed his case.
Court’s Judgment
- Delivering judgment on the case, Justice Bawule found Matazu “guilty of all counts levelled against him by the ICPC and pronounced him convicted accordingly.”
- The court consequently sentenced the defendant to six months imprisonment or an option of N20,000 fine on counts 1, 2, and 3, and five years imprisonment without an option of fine on the fourth count.
- The sentences are expected to run concurrently.
- Reacting to the development, the ICPC highlighted that the conviction underscores its resolve to ensure that public office is not used for personal gain and that offenders are held accountable under the law.
More Insights
The development comes months after the ICPC chairman, Dr. Musa Aliyu, disclosed that the agency identified and arrested individuals responsible for manipulating the payroll system, including one case where a government worker added his family members to the system.
“We have been able to track and recover this amount of money, and we have also identified people who are inserting ghost workers in the system. We even discovered that somebody had put his wife, his son, and his in-laws on the payroll,” he said.
According to him, the agency recovered over N20 billion in pension deductions from salaries allocated to ghost workers in 2024.
