Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja Thursday convicted a former Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Interior, Anastasia Daniel-Nwobia, for procurement infractions.
Mrs Daniel-Nwobia was prosecuted alongside the former minister of Interior Senator Abba Moro and two others on 11 count charge over the botched Nigerian Immigration Service recruitment exercise in 2014.
The recruitment exercise conducted in March 2014 led to the death of no fewer than 20 applicants while many others were injured in stampedes in Moshodi Abiola Stadium Abuja, Port Harcourt stadium and Minna Stadium.
Other defendants are a deputy director in the ministry of Interior , F. O Alayebami; one Mahmood Ahmadu (at large), and the contracting firm that handled the recruitment job, Drexel Tech Nigeria Ltd.
Justice Dimgba had earlier during the trial discharged and acquitted the defendants on counts 1,2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 following a no case submission but ordered the defendants to entered defence on counts 3, 4 and 11.
Delivering judgment on Thursday, Justice Dimgba said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had not proved the charge of corruption against Abba Moro and Alayebami.
The judge said however, that the permanent secretary Mrs Anastasia Daniel-Nwobia was guilty on count 4 which he noted, carries maximum jail term of 5 years without an option of fine.
But he deferred sentencing of Mrs Anastasia Daniel-Nwobia to April 27.
The contract was awarded through selective tendering procedure by invitation of four firms without seeking approval of the Bureau for Public Procurement contrary to section 40, 42,and 43 of Public Procurement Act,No 65 of 2007and punishable under Section 58 of the same Act.
The court also found that the award of the contract to Drexel Tech Nigeria Limited had no prior advertisement, no needs assessment and a procurement plan was not carried out before the award of the contract.
EFCC had in the charge stated that N1,000 was extorted from each applicant through e-payment for the online application and in the process defrauded Nigerian applicants to the tune of N676,675,000 million .
