The Supreme Court, on Friday, upheld the conviction and 12-year prison sentence that was handed to former governor of Taraba State, Reverend Jolly Nyame, for stealing public funds.

He had approached the Supreme Court to evaluate the evidence with which he was convicted, review his sentences, and verify whether the charges were valid.

In a unanimous decision, a five-man panel of justices of the apex court led by Justice Mary Odili, said it found no reason to set-aside concurrent judgements of both the trial court and the Court of Appeal, which found Nyame guilty of embezzlement and money laundering.

The lead judgement was delivered by Justice Amina Augie. She held that the appeal Nyame filed to challenge his conviction and sentence lacked merit.

The Supreme Court however ruled that the appeal court was wrong to also impose a fine against the convict. It therefore freed Jolly Nyame from paying fine for the financial crime he committed against the state.

Justice Adebukola Banjoko of an Abuja High Court had on May 30, 2018, found Nyame guilty on 27 out of the 41-count money laundering charges levelled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The High Court sentenced him to 14 years for criminal breach of trust, 2 years for misappropriation, 7 years for gratification and 5 years for obtaining valuable public property without consideration.

The Court of Appeal in Abuja,  on November 16, 2018 ordered the former Taraba State Governor, to pay a fine of N495 million for alleged misappropriation of funds while he was governor from 1999 to 2007, but  reduced his sentence which is running concurrently to 12 years, 5 years, 4 years and 1 year and nine months, respectively.