Why NIMASA Executive Director, Agaba, Was Jailed

By Adesina Soyooye

Captain Ezekiel Agaba, a former Executive Director of the Nigerian Maritime and Safety Agency, NIMASA will, from Wednesday night, spend the first night of a seven- year jail term slammed on him in a Correctional Centre in Lagos today.

In the case filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Agaba was sentenced to seven years imprisonment, with no option of fine, by a Federal High Court in Lagos.

He was nailed for a N1.5bn fraud case.

The Hon. Justice Ibrahim Buba, who sentenced him, said that the EFCC had proved its case beyond any reasonable doubt.

Captain Agaba was arraigned with a former Director General of NIMASA, Patrick Akpolobokemi and two others in December, 2015.

They were alleged to have used two firms to spirit away the sum of N2.6bn, which was meant for the implementation of International Ship and Port Security Code at NIMASA.

The ISPS Code was to enable NIMASA carry out security checks on vessels entering the nation’s waters.

Akpobolokemi was discharged by an Appeal court, while the EFCC withdrew the case against the other two, leaving Agaba to carry the bucket alone.

It is not known if he would appeal the judgement. But a source close to him told the magazine that he “definitely would”.