Bishop gets 5-year jail for diverting N69m

Bishop Jinga Mayo, former Executive Secretary of the Adamawa Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board (CPWB), has been sentenced to five-year imprisonment without option of fine, TopNaija.ng reports.

A Yola High Court, which passed the judgement on Monday, further sentenced Bishop Jinga to six months imprisonment with N50,000 option of fine.

The court, presided by Justice Nathan Musa, said that the jail terms are to run concurrently.

Bishop Jinga was convicted for diverting N69.189 million out of the N346.8 million released to the board by the previous state government in respect of 2016 Christian pilgrimage.

The court convicted Bishop Jinga Mayo on count 2 and 3, for converting government’s money for his personal use, while discharging and acquitting him on count 1 for failure of prosecution to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

The convict was earlier charged to court by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for “making false return in respect to finances, conferring of corrupt advantage upon himself and making false statement to the officer of the ICPC.”

A history of the case has it that the convict, who was the Executive Secretary of the board, diverted the money which was meant to settle the entitlements of the committee members for the exercise to his private pocket.

The Bishop had earlier told the court that he used the money to sponsor agricultural training programme organised for Christian pilgrims in Israel but could not provide evidence.