Court hands Akwa Ibom Senator 42-year jail term

The lawmaker representing Akwa Ibom North East District, Senator Bassey Albert Akpan, has been sentenced to forty-two years in prison for corruption.

Justice Agatha Okeke of the Federal High Court in Uyo, in a ruling on Thursday, found Senator Bassey guilty of a six-count corruption charge preferred against the lawmaker for allegedly taking possession of six vehicles worth N204 million when he was Commissioner of Finance in the state during the Godswill Akpabio Administration.

He was consequently sentenced to the Ikot Ekpene Correctional Centre to serve his jail term.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had in 2019 arraigned him on the charge of collecting one of the vehicles from Olajide Omokore, an oil marketer and associate of Diezani Alison Madueke, a former Minister of Petroleum. Omokore reportedly had dealings with the state when he offered Bassey the vehicle.

Elected to the Senate under the platform of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), the second-term lawmaker who is one of the leading governorship candidates ahead of the 2023 election in Akwa Ibom, defected to the Young Progressives Party (YPP) in July 2022, to secure the party’s ticket.

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