Unbelievable : Ex-prisons comptroller, inspector bag jail terms for stealing 27,200 liters of gas

A former Comptroller of Prisons, Mr. Wure Diete, has been sentenced to three years in jail for stealing 27,200 litres of automotive gas oil (diesel) kept in the custody of the Ogwashi-Uku Prisons in Delta State.

Diete was jailed alongside a former Senior Inspector f Prisons, Mr. Ayamele Peter, by Delta State High Court sitting in Sapele, presided over by Hon. Justice C.O. Ogisi.
According to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission which prosecuted the former prisons officers, the convicts were found guilty of a four count of conspiring to sell the products stored in three different trucks that they were supposed to keep watch over.
The petitioner had alleged that after the prisons officers sold the products, they refilled the drums kept in the trucks with water on the directive of Diete.
They had pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were initially arraigned on November 1, 2013, said Wilson Uwajuren, the Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC on Thursday.
One of the counts read, “That you Wisdom Wure Diete and Peter Ayamede, while being a Deputy Comptroller of Prisons in charge of Ogwashi-Uku prison and a Senior Inspector of Prison respectively on or about April 2012 at Ogwashi-Uku Judicial Division did steal 27,200 litres of Automotive Gas Oil being the content of the 134 drums of 200 litres each loaded in a truck with number plate XN 789 ENU, valued at about N4,002,000, property of the Federal Republic of Nigeria kept with the Nigerian Prison Service Ogwashi-Uku, which you were in charge of and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 390 and punishable under Section 390 (5)(8)(b) & (9) of the Criminal Code Law CAP C21 Laws of Delta State of Nigeria 2006.”