Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday re-arraigned a former
Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, for an alleged fraud of
N4.9bn.He
was re-arraigned before a new judge, Justice Rilwan Aikawa, after he
objected to being tried before Justice Muslim Hassan of the same court
before whom he was earlier arraigned on June 28, 2016.
A former Minister of
State for Finance, Senator Nenadi Usman; who was listed as the one
defendant in the charge, one Danjuma Yusuf and a company, Joint Trust
Dimensions Limited were equally re-arraigned before Justice Aikawa on
Monday.
The 17 counts pressed against them border on conspiracy, unlawful retention of proceeds of theft and money laundering.
Fani-Kayode,
who was the Director of Publicity of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s
presidential campaign organisation for the 2015 election, was accused of
conspiring with the others to, directly and indirectly, retain various
sums, which the EFCC claimed they ought to have reasonably known were
proceeds of crime.
In one of the counts, the defendants were
accused of conspiring among themselves to “indirectly retain the sum of
N1,500, 000,000.00 which sum you reasonably ought to have known forms
part of the proceeds of an unlawful act to wit: stealing.”
The four were also accused of indirectly retaining N300m, N400m and N800m, all proceeds of corruption, according to EFCC.
EFCC said they allegedly committed the offence between January 8 and March 25, 2015, ahead of the 2015 general election.
But as they earlier pleaded not guilty before Justice Hassan, the defendants equally pleaded not guilty on Monday.
Following
a plea by Usman’s lawyer, Mr. Abiodun Owonikoko (SAN), Justice Aikawa
allowed them to continue on the bail earlier granted them by Justice
Hassan.
The matter was adjourned till June 6 and 9 for the
commencement of trial and for the judge to rule on the defence’s request
for the matter to be taken to Abuja.
-Punch