EFCC slams 44 fresh charges against Igbinedion, others

By Emma Anya, Tony Amokeodo and Adelani Adepegba

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has filed 44 additional charges against a former Governor of Edo State, Chief Lucky Igbinedion, and six others.



former Governor of Edo State, Chief Lucky Igbinedion



The new charges bring to 191, the number of offences Igbinedion and his co-accused now have to defend at a Federal High Court, Enugu.

The new offences, however, led to the adjournment of the trial of the accused by the presiding judge, Justice Abdul Kafarati, on Tuesday.

Hours after the adjournment, two Senior Advocates of Nigeria — Dr. Konyinsola Ajayi and Chief Yomi Akintola— and a human rights activist, Mr. Bamidele Aturu, demanded the resignation of the EFCC Chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri, for claiming that the files on 31 former governors investigated by the commission were missing.

During the resumed hearing of the case against Igbinedion and the six others, their counsel told the court that they needed time to study the 44 new charges which also bother on money laundering and corruption.

Igbinedion's lawyer, Chief Adetunji Oyeyipo (SAN), told the court that he needed two months to study the fresh charges and reply as required by section 36 of the 1999 Constitution

"We have flipped through it and found there are at least 44 new counts, and in these new counts, we observed that no fewer than 26 concern our client ( Igbinedion)," he said.

The senior advocate added that there were additional proofs of evidence of about 300 pages attached to the charges by the EFCC.

He argued that since the prosecution had ample time to prepare the charges, "the accused person ought to be given reasonable opportunity to defend himself."

"Due to no fault of ours, we are forced to apply for an adjournment of this trial, but if the prosecution is ready to proceed with the existing charge, we are ready because we feel that giving us less than one hour to go through the new charges is unfair and out of tune with the law," Oyeyipo said.

He also applied for the return of the ex-governor's passport to the custody of the court.

The counsel to the other defendants in the case agreed with Oyeyipo's submission.

But the EFCC counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, opposed the application, saying it was 'ridiculous' for a counsel to study an amended charge for such a long time.

He reminded the court that members of the public were watching how the case was going on and accused the defence of applying all kinds of tactics to delay the case.

Jacobs urged the court to give the defence counsel not more than two weeks to study and reply to the charges , but the court objected and granted them six weeks.

In Lagos, Ajayi, Akintola and Aturu berated the comments credited to the EFCC chairman that the files on 31 former governors investigated for corrupt practices were either distorted or missing.

Speaking in separate interviews with THE PUNCH on Tuesday, they said if the comments by Waziri were true, she had no business staying a day longer in office as the chairman of the anti-graft agency.

According to Ajayi, the utterance of the EFCC boss was a national embarrassment that called for her resignation without further delay.

He said, "It is a national embarrassment and she should just resign without further delay.

"It is a disgrace that files that contain investigation of certain national officers on alleged corrupt practices could be said to be missing. It is unheard of and it is unbelievable."

On his part, Akintola said he believed that Waziri was misquoted, adding that the files could not disappear, as the EFCC is a public institution.

He said, " I think she was misquoted . She can't say that the files are missing, having risen to the post of an Assistant Inspector-General of Police and being the EFCC boss.

"It can't be true that she will say that, because she will be putting herself on the firing line of her detractors.

"She must look for the files because the EFCC is a public institution, otherwise, she will just give herself away to her opponents. I don't believe that she said that."

Aturu, in a statement entitled, EFCC's Missing File: Ridiculous, said the "files must be found by all means or Madam (Waziri) should excuse herself or be excused by the National Assembly" from the leadership of the anti-graft agency.

Aturu, who said Nigerians needed the particulars of the missing files and those in their custody because "the war against corruption cannot be permitted to be aborted by those who have a stake in the continuation of graft."

But the commission on Tuesday, assured Nigerians that it had not drawn the curtain on the investigation and prosecution of the former governors.

A statement by the commission's Head , Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Babafemi, said the assurance was neccessitated by what it called "misleading reports in some newspapers over comments" made by Waziri in response to questions asked by participants at a round table in Abuja .

Narrating what transpired at the forum, Babafemi said, "A participant had asked why the commission was yet to prosecute the 31 ex - governors that the former chairman of the EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, claimed were ready for trial.

"In her response, Waziri denied inheriting 31 case files on ex - governors, stressing that she had been working on what she met on the ground in addition to fresh evidence she had been able to gather against the former public office holders.

"She had said 'we work on facts available to us and not on speculations. There are no case files on all these people as being suggested. We are now beginning to investigate and prosecute some of them. "Truthfully, I got there and what I found is what I am working with. I work on the case files. I tried to see if there was prima facie evidence or if there was nothing in the case file or there was no case file at all. There is nothing I can do than to start afresh. Therefore, there are no 31 case files on ex-governors as claimed. Before arraigning anyone, there must be facts; there must be evidences; and there must be witnesses. And these are things we are working on quietly to put together before we can take any of them to court."

The statement added that at the moment, 11 former governors were facing prosecution while some others were being investigated.

"It is, therefore, misleading to suggest that because the present leadership of the commission did not inherit the 31 case files, the commission cannot build up evidence against those that have questions to answer", it added.



http://odili.net/news/source/2008/oct/15/411.html

I assure u EFCC can do nothing.They can only do something to people that do not have the pdp backing