Double Allowances – Acting Provost Jailed 5 Years

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has warned Public Officers against conferring unfair advantage upon themselves especially  when  they are attending meetings or during monitoring duties or oversight functions involving other government/corporate Organisations.

They should stop the practice of  collecting double Duty Tour Allowances from their Agencies and  also receive or demand same in cash or facilities from the Agencies being visited.

Such abuse, ICPC stressed, was  punishable under Section 19 of Corrupt Practices & Other Related Offences  Act 2000 which stipulates: “Any public officer who uses his office or position to gratify or confer any corrupt or unfair advantage upon himself or associate of the public officer or any public officer shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for five years without option of fine.”

The ICPC said this Advisory was necessary after it  secured conviction at the High Court Of Justice, Gusau of five years without option of fine against Dr. Bello Shallah Ahmed, Acting Provost of the College of Education (Technical) Gusau, Zamfara State, for collecting double Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) for the same trip.


Dr. Shallah Ahmed was accused of having collected DTA from the College for an official trip to attend a Board Meeting of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) while equally collecting an equal amount as DTA from JAMB, including Sitting Allowances all totaling N385,000.00.)

In an  eight-count charge against Bello Shallah it  stated; “That you Bello Muhammad Shallah(m) sometime between the 13th and 16th of November, 2006 or thereabout at the Federal College of Education (Technical), Gusau, Zamfara State being a public officer, then serving as the Acting Provost of the said institute used your position as the Acting Provost to confer unfair advantage upon yourself by collecting the  sum of N75,000 as DTA, fueling, servicing and others for an official trip to Abuja  to attend JAMB Board Meeting from the said Federal College of Education, Gusau while at the same period and for the same purpose you collected the sum of N90,000 Air ticket and sitting allowance (as a JAMB Board Member) from the JAMB and thereby committed an offence  contrary to and punishable under section 19 of the Corrupt Practices & Other Related Offences Act, 2000

In his judgement,on 13 October, 2014  Justice Amaize said he was not swayed by the plea of allocutus as the accused lacked integrity. He gave him the maximum sentence of 5 years without option of fine.