AFederal High Court in Bauchi state has jailed two Chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Saleh Gamawa and Aminu Gadiya, for receiving over N142 million to influence the 2015 presidential election.
The two PDP chieftains were handed a prison sentence after being arraigned on a two-count charge preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The duo was first arraigned on June 4, 2018 and re-arraigned on October 16, 2018. They pleaded “not guilty” when they were arraigned.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that the EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwajuren, said the PDP Chieftains were found guilty of receiving money “well in excess of the legal threshold designated by law”.
Justice Hassan Dikko sentenced the defendants to two years at the Bauchi Correction Service with an option of a fine of N3 million each in lieu of imprisonment on count one.
Gamawa bagged another two years imprisonment or a fine of N3 million in lieu of imprisonment on count two.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that PDP Is one of the three major contemporary political parties in Nigeria, along with its main rival, the All Progressives Congress and the Labour Party.
Its policies generally lie towards the centre-right of the political spectrum. It won every presidential election between 1999 and 2011 and was, until the 2015 elections, the governing party in the Fourth Republic, although sometimes amid a few controversial electoral circumstances.
