ABUJA — Erstwhile chairman
of the Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP, Prince Vincent
Ogbulafor, yesterday, begged
Justice Ishaq Bello of an
Abuja High Court in Abuja to
dismiss the 17-count
amended criminal charge
that was preferred against
him by the Independent
Corrupt Practices and Other
Related Offences
Commission, ICPC.
Ogbulafor was on June 21,
2010, arraigned before the
high court on allegation that
he conspired with two
others, Mr. Emeka Ebilah and
Mr. Jude Nwokoro, and
defrauded the Federal
Government to the tune of
N2.2billion in 2001.
The former PDP boss was
said to have used his
position as the head of
National Economic
Intelligence Committee, NEIC,
set-up to verify debts owed
local contractors, to okay as
genuine, several forged
documents, which were
relied upon to certify that
three bogus companies,
executed jobs worth over
N2.2billion.
The three fake companies
they allegedly floated in 2001
to siphon N82.6m, N11.5m
and N6.2m respectively, were
listed by the anti-graft
agency in its charge sheet as,
Henrichiko Nig Ltd, DHL
Consultants and Chekwas
Industries.
Besides, ICPC told the trial
court that its investigations
revealed that Ogbulafor
collected kickbacks of N2m
and N28m from the second
and third accused persons
Messrs. Ebulah and Chris
Nwoke, respectively to
facilitate the release of the
funds.
At the resumed hearing on
the matter, yesterday,
Ogbulafor, who was billed to
open his defence vis-a-vis
the charge, through his
counsel Chief J.K Gadzama,
SAN, entered a no-case-
submission, insisting that the
totality of the proof of
evidence tendered before
the court, failed to establish a
prima-facie criminal case
against him.
Meantime, admitting that he
actually collected N2million
from the second accused
person, Ogbulafor,
maintained that the fund
was given to him to support
his campaign for the PDP
national chairmanship
position, adding that he had
already left office by then.
After listening to the parties,
yesterday, Justice Bello
adjourned the case till March
26 for ruling.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/03/n2-2bn-fraud-ogbulafor-begs-court-to-dismiss-charge-against-him/