Corruption cases in Nigeria have been known to cause an occasional ailment or two.
Former National
Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh,
made a dramatic entrance into an Abuja Federal High Court on Monday,
February 5, 2018 when he was wheeled into the courtroom on a stretcher
after he arrived in an ambulance.
Metuh appears in court for fraud trial on stretcher after jail threatplay
Olisa Metuh arrived in court on a stretcher inside an ambulance (The Nation)
Metuh’s appearance was
forced because an earlier plea to the court to adjourn trial due to his
hospitalisation had been turned down by Justice Okon Abang who was
unimpressed with the doctor’s note he sent (read full story here).
With Metuh’s histrionic
on Monday, he joins a long list of Nigerian politicians who have
developed health challenges after being accused of one form of
corruption or the other.
Here is a list of some of the memorable ones:
1. Diezani Alison-Madueke
Former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Maduekeplay
Former Minister of
Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke revealed she was receiving
treatment for cancer after corruption allegations started to pile up
(The Boss Newspaper)
Former Minister of
Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, is like the gateway drug to
corruption in Nigeria over the past few years as she has been linked to
a plethora of money laundering scandals that are too many to count.
At the height of her powers, she was one of the most powerful members in former president, Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet.
Since that
administration ended in 2015, Diezani has been plagued with so many
accusations, as she faces criminal probes in Nigeria and the United
Kingdom under suspicion of money laundering and its attendant crimes.
In 2015, a photograph of
a physically-ravaged Diezani was published by the publisher of Ovation
magazine, Dele Momodu, who confirmed that she had been receiving
treatment for breast cancer, something she had denied before the
allegations started piling up.
Many Nigerians still
regard the release of the picture as a last-ditch attempt by the former
minister to curry sympathy as revelations about her fraudulent financial
dealings as minister continue to make waves every few months.
*********************
2. Femi Fani-Kayode
Femi Fani-Kayode is not playing with Col. Hameed Aliplay
Femi Fani-Kayode. (Total Media)
Former Minister of
Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, is one of the most vocal voices of
opposition in Nigeria, but he is also standing trial for N4.9 billion
money laundering charge in court.
The 17-count charge
against him includes alleged conspiracy, unlawful retention of proceeds
of theft and money laundering in a case that also involves a former
Minister of State for Finance, Nenadi Usman.
On Wednesday, January 31, 2018, Fani-Kayode failed to show up for a court hearing due to health reasons.
His attorney, Norrison
Quakers (SAN), reported that he was hospitalised with a heart-related
ailment and asked for an adjournment that was granted.
3. Nenadi Usman
Nenadi Usmanp
Meet Nenadi Usman (Sahara Reporters)
Fani-Kayode was not the first defendant to stall a trial with an illness.
In February 2017, Usman,
also a former minister listed as first defendant in Fani-Kayode’s fraud
trial, revealed to the court that she had been diagnosed with breast
cancer.
She asked Justice Muslim
Hassan of the Federal High Court in Lagos to permit her to travel
abroad to receive treatment as recommended by doctors at the National
Hospital after suffering a relapse after a surgery.
Justice Rilwan Aikawa
granted Usman’s request in December 2017 and asked that her passport be
released to her to enable her travel to the United States of America.
She was ordered to
resume for the court’s hearing on January 31, the same day Fani-Kayode
engineered an adjournment with his own hospitalisation.
4. Kingsley Kuku
Kingsley Kuku (Daily Post)
Former presidential
adviser on Niger Delta and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty
Programme (PAP), Kingsley Kuku, was rumoured to have fled Nigeria after
he was invited for questioning by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) in 2015.
The former aide to
former president, Jonathan, responded to the rumours by releasing
pictures of his knee operation in the United States and denied being a
fugitive.
The EFCC had traced
alleged mismanagement in the Niger-Delta amnesty funds to Kuku, who
later launched an unsuccessful attempt in court to block the anti-graft
agency from arresting him as he remains in the wind till date.
His aides while in
office, Lawrence Pepple and Henry Ogbulue, were separately arraigned in
court by the EFCC for criminal conspiracy and fraudulent acquisition of
property as public servants.
5. Bala Ngilari
Former Adamawa State
governor, Bala Ngilari, was sentenced by the state’s High Court to five
years in prison on March 6, 2017, after he was accused by the EFCC of
processing a N169 million contract without due process.
Not only was he
sentenced to a prison of his own choosing, he was controversially
granted bail only weeks later after citing medical concerns that
included high blood pressure, diabetes and insomnia.
His release was
controversial as three senior prison officials were suspended after it
came to light that the medical report that aided Ngilari’s release was
not authorized by the prison authorities.
On July 20, 2017, a
Court of Appeal in Yola dismissed all charges against Ngilari and set
him free due to lack of merit and sufficient proof of the allegations
against him.
from pulseng