Mint bribery: Okoyomon jittery as UK convicts Australian accomplice

Former Managing Director of Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC) Emmanuel Okoyomon is in uneasy mood.

Mr. Okoyomon is restless after his Australian accomplice – Peter Chapman was convicted and jailed 30 months in UK for bribing an official at Nigeria’s MINT.

Chapman had bribed Okoyomon huge sums to secure mouth-watering contract for his polymer banknote manufacturing company, Securency International Pty Ltd of Australia. 

He was convicted by a Southwark Crown Court in the United Kingdom.

However, the former Securency manager walked free from court on Thursday having already spent a year and a half behind bars awaiting trial.

Mr Chapman jail term included six months in a Brazilian jail, so horrific that it was featured in a United Nations report.

Chapman had paid the bribes while under “considerable pressure” from his superiors at Securency to achieve sales, judge Michael Grieve QC said.

They had encouraged or at least connived in the corrupt activity, and the company benefited from “highly lucrative” sales in Nigeria of the plastic used to print banknotes: orders worth around €30 million ($47 million).

“Corruption, in particular corruption of a public official is a very serious problem,” Judge Grieve said, saying this week’s anti-corruption summit in London highlighted this fact.

He quoted an appeal court judge who had called corruption an “insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on society”, and an “evil phenomenon” that was a key contributor to poverty in the developing world.

“The offences are undoubtedly so serious that only a custodial sentence is justified,” Judge Grieve said on Thursday.

However Judge Grieve found additional aggravating features above the “inherent seriousness” of the four counts of bribery for which Mr Chapman was found guilty.

In mitigation, he said the bribes had been paid over just three months in early 2009. 

And the total sum of the bribes, about £143,000 ($282,000) was substantial but “small in comparison” to other bribes that Securency had paid in other parts of the world.

However, his co-accused, Mr. Okoyomon, who was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for his role in the bribery scam, is currently battling to stop his extradition from Nigeria to the UK for trial.

The news of his conviction was on Thursday relayed by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in the UK to the Acting Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu who was on a visit to the SFO in London.

Justice E. S. Chukwu of a Federal High Court, Abuja, had on May 4, 2015 ordered that he be extradited to the UK to face charges of corruption and money laundering.

However, Mr. Okoyomon, through his counsel, Alex Izinyon, SAN, approached the Court of Appeal, seeking a stay of execution of the order of the court.

Through his other counsel, Mike Enahoro, he also approached a Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Apo, Abuja.

He is seeking to be granted bail from prison, where he had been remanded after Justice Chukwu ordered his extradition.

However, on September 11, 2015, Justice Valentine Ashi of the FCT High Court sitting in Apo, Abuja ruled as an abuse of court process the bail application brought before it by Mr. Enahoro.

The trial judge berated Mr. Okoyomon’s counsel for deliberating employing delay tactics to frustrate his extradition to the UK for trial.

In the meantime, Mr. Okoyomon awaits the ruling of the Court of Appeal on his application seeking a stay of execution of the Federal High Court’s order that he be extradited to the UK for trial, just as Brazil did for Mr. Chapman.

Mr. Okoyomon’s extradition is being sought by the UK government over his alleged role in the bribery allegation involving officials of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, the NSPMC and Securency International Pty Ltd of Australia between 2006 and 2008. 

In the meantime, Mr Chapman may also face a fine, and confiscation of his property as a result of the convictions.

Discussion of that part of the sentence was adjourned until January next year.

© Copyright 2015 www.elombah.com. Send eyewitness accounts/reports/articles to publisher@elombah.com; follow us on twitter handle @Elombah; like our Facebook page: “Elombah.com”

For Diaspora Digital Media Updates click on Whatsapp, or Telegram. For eyewitness accounts/ reports/ articles, write to: citizenreports@diasporadigitalmedia.com. Follow us on X (Fomerly Twitter) or Facebook