Court of Appeal Upholds Three Years Conviction of Ex-Imo Commissioner, Laseberry Anyanwu

Court

By JUMOKE SANNI

The Imo State Division of Court of Appeal, has upheld the conviction and three-year sentence of Prince Laseberry Okafor Anyanwu, a former Commissioner of Transport in the Rochas Okorocha administration of Imo State, for N180, 000, 000 (One Hundred and Eighty Million Naira, only) fraud.

Anyanwu was arraigned by the Enugu Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on November 26, 2020 before Justice E. F. Njemanze of the Imo State High Court on a four-count charge bordering on abuse of office and fraudulent diversion of N180, 000, 000 (One Hundred and Eighty Million Naira only).

The convict, whilst serving as Commissioner of Transport under Okorochas’ administration, diverted the said sum from the account of the Imo State Transport Company to Oma Oil and Industries Limited, a company in which he has interest, through phony contracts.

One of the charges reads, “Prince Laseberry Okafor Anyanwu (a.k.a Laseberry Okafor) between the 6th day of November, 2017 and 10th day of November, 2017, while being employed as the Chairman, Committee on Review of Imo Transport Company, used his office to confer a corrupt advantage upon himself when he caused the transfer of the N100,000,000.00(One Hundred Million Naira only) property of Imo Transport Company’s account with Imo State Microfinance bank’s Polaris bank account No:40906668828 belonging to Oma Oil & Industries Ltd, a company in which he is a Shareholder/Director/Chairman/Chief Executive and signatory to the bank accounts of the said company”.

Another count reads, “Prince Laseberry Okafor Anyanwu (a.k.a Laseberry Okafor) also on the 31st day of January, 2018, used his office to confer a corrupt advantage upon himself when he caused another transfer of the sum of N80,000.000.00(Eighty Million Naira only) property of Imo State Government from the Imo State Ministry of Transport’s account with Polaris Bank Account No:40906668828 belonging to Oma Oil & Industries Ltd, a company in which he is a Shareholder/Director/Chairman/Chief Executive and signatory to the bank accounts of the said company”.