Corruption

Babangida Aliyu A former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, has opened his defence in a case of alleged money laundering preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Maina opened his defence by presenting a witness, Ngozika Ihuoma, a consultant whose firm between 2010 and 2011 carried out the biometric verification of pensioners in the country. The witness told the court that prior to the biometric capture, the sum of ₦1.5billion was paid monthly as police pension but upon completion of the exercise, the pension payments dropped to 4 ₦66million. Ihuoma further informed the court that the PRTT headed by Maina had on November 2011 recovered the sum of ₦181billion in pension fund surplus which was subsequentl...

Ibrahim Musa A former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina has asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to vacate an order made to continue his alleged money laundering trial in absentia. The Presiding Judge, Justice Okon Abang, had on November 18, 2020 ordered that Maina’s trial would continue in his absence after he jumped bail and refused to attend trial until he was later arrested in Niger Republic and extradited back to Nigeria to continue his trial. At the resumed trial, Maina’s lawyer moved an application praying the court to set aside both orders made by the court considering the fact that the defendant has been brought back to face trial. The prosecutor, Mohammed Abubakar however objected to the application on the ground that sett...

John Madaki Hearing in the suit by former Governor of Abia State and Senate Chief Whip, Senator Orji Kalu seeking to stop his retrial by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on same alleged money laundering charges has been adjourned to April 20. The adjournment is predicated on the fact the EFCC, which is listed as the first defendant in the suit, was not properly served with the originating summons. At the resumed hearing of the suit, Rotimi Jacobs who announced appearance for the Commission on protest drew the attention of the court to the fact that the originating summons was served on his chambers instead of the EFCC. He told Justice Inyang Ekwo that he was yet to be briefed by the anti-graft agency as its counsel and it would amount to professional mis...

Lawal Ogunsanya The Federal High Court in Lagos has granted permission to former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, to travel abroad for further medical treatment. It is not the first time the court is allowing Fayose to travel abroad for treatment. The court had granted a similar application in Dec 2020. The present application dated February 5, 2021, was filed on behalf of the former governor by his counsel, Ola Olanipekun (SAN) and moved today in court by another defence counsel, Sunday Olowolafe. Through the counsel, Fayose sought an order of the court granting him leave “to travel outside Nigeria for further medical examination, diagnosis, treatment and therapeutics, as an exigency of his health demands, on dates which shall not coincide with or obstruct any dat...

Ibrahim Musa Former Minister of Aviation, Senator Stella Oduah on Monday appeared at the Federal High Court, Abuja over alleged financial impropriety. The Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is alleging that Oduah misappropriated public funds while serving as a minister. In a 25-count preferred against the former minister and eight others, they are accused of fraud and diversion of funds through the operation of anonymous bank accounts. The arraignment was however stalled again, on Monday, February 22. At the resumed hearing, the prosecutor, Hassan Liman told the court that the EFCC has been unable to serve the charges on the fifth and sixth defendants. The prosecutor, therefore, prayed for leave of the court to serve the defendants, which are corporate bodie...

Adamu Bello A former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Mr Abdulrasheed Maina has renewed his application for a fresh bail as he informed a Federal high court in Abuja that he needs the urgent attention of a medical practitioner. At the resumed hearing of the application, counsel to Mister Maina prayed the court to grant the defendant bail on grounds of deteriorating health as he assures the court that his client has sworn an undertaking dismissing any likelihood of jumping bail. In opposition to the bail application, Counsel to the EFCC argued that the application by the defendant on account of Ill health may afford him another opportunity to jump bail as he insists that the defendant’s condition is not life-threatening to warrant him been flown abroad for med...

Emeka Onwudiwe After taking the evidence of its second witness, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has closed its case at the Federal High Court, Lagos, in the alleged N1.4billion money laundering trial of a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Paul Usoro, SAN. The counsel to the EFCC, Uduak Kufre who asked Justice Rilwan Aikawa to discharge the witness also told the court that the commission was pleased with the evidence it had put forward in the case. The EFCC had called Idongesit Udom, a deputy manager at Zenith Bank as it’s a first witness and Abdulrahman Arabo, the investigating officer as its second and final witness. After discharging the witness and closing its case, the stage was set for the defendant to put in his defence but c...

Ozor Eneh THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has begun investigations into the alleged misappropriated statutory allocations of over N6,756,800,000.00  belonging to the 13 local government areas in the state by the state government. Overtnews had reported  that formers aides of the Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, under the auspices of G-64 Former Coordinators’ Forum of Ebonyi State, petitioned the EFCC over what they described as the alleged “misappropriation of statutory allocations of over N6,756,800,000.00 belonging to the 13 local government councils” by the state government. In the petition, which was dated January 11, 2021, and signed by their lawyers, Amos Ogbonnaya and Co., a copy of which was obtained by Overtnews, Umahi’s former aides claimed...

Babangida Aliyu The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Maiduguri Zonal Office, has closed its case in the ongoing trial of Aisha Alkali Wakil, popularly known as “Mama Boko Haram,” before Justice Umaru Fadawu of the Borno State High Court, Maiduguri. The prosecution closed its case today after calling the last two witnesses, Geoffrey Okolorie(PW3) and Bashir Abubakar (PW4). Okolorie, a staff of the Digital Forensic Unit of the EFCC, Abuja office, while giving evidence told the court that his unit received a letter alongside five mobile phones belonging to Aisha Alkali Wakil, Tahiru Saidu Daura, and Prince Lawal Shoyode from the Maiduguri EFCC office, requesting that a digital forensic analysis be carried out on the mobile devices. He said upon the receipt of t...