It is a case of the hunter becoming the hunted when Justice Umaru Fadawu of the Borno State High Court, Maiduguri, Nigeria, sentenced a prosecuting counsel with the State Ministry of Justice, Zanna Dalhatu to 18 months in prison for soliciting N7 million bribe.
Dalhatu’s conviction followed his arraignment on January 10, 2019, by the Maiduguri Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
He first pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against him but in the course of the trial changed his plea and was sentenced on Monday without an option of fine.
EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said in a statement on Tuesday that the lawyer’s journey to prison started when he demanded N7m bribe and also attempted to obtain the said sum from Shuaibu Mohammed, the Chief Accountant of Borno State Road Maintenance Agency to facilitate the termination of a case against a worker of the agency.
Unknown to him, Dalhatu was being trailed and was arrested in the process of collecting the bribe.
While the EFCC presented three witnesses during the trial, the defence counsel, Zanna Hamza, made a ‘no case’ submission, which the court threw out and ordered that he should open his defence.
Not satisfied with the ruling, the defendant approached the Appeal Court, Jos Division, which upheld the Borno State High Court’s ruling on the no-case submission.
Upon the amendment of the charge by the prosecution, Dalhatu pleaded guilty and was convicted and sentenced accordingly.