[size=18pt]EFCC drops charges against Customs ex-chief in N2.7b scam suit [/size]


THE Federal Government on Wednesday discontinued the corruption charges it instituted against former Comptroller General, Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Hamman Bello Ahmed and others over alleged involvement in a N2.7 billion duty evasion scam by the Vaswani brothers.
No official reason was given for the withdrawal.

Ahmed was charged before a Federal High Court, Lagos by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alongside Managing Director, Popular Foods Limited, (a company owned by the Vaswani brothers) Tajudeen Olalere, an official of Silver Maritime Shipping Company, Lukman Hussein and a former Apapa Area Comptroller of Customs, Hannatu Sulaiman.

The EFCC had arraigned the accused on a 46-count charge bordering on alleged fraud, conspiracy and forgery of Customs’ document to perpetrate financial crimes totalling N2.7 billion.
When the matter came up in court yesterday, counsel to the EFCC, Femi Aina, urged the court to strike out the charges against the accused persons, adding that he was under instruction from his clients to withdraw the suit.

Responding, counsel to the defendants including Kanu Agabi (SAN), Fidelis Oditah (SAN) and Bonojo Badejo (SAN) told the court that they had no objection to the application to discontinue the matter.
After reviewing all submissions, Judge James Tsoho struck out the case.

According to the charge sheet, the accused were alleged to have fraudulently evaded N522 million customs’ duty in respect of 14,000 metric tones of rice imported sometimes in November 2008, thereby committing a crime under section 164 of the Customs and Excise Management Act, Cap C45, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, among other allegations.


http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17683:efcc-drops-charges-against-customs-ex-chief-in-n27b-scam-suit&catid=1:national&Itemid=559

EFCC are thieves themselves jor.

How can you drop a charge without giving reasonable reason? Esp when it concerns a politician. Dirty game, this is!

A good example why anybody accused of any crime must be tried first before being executed. I mean any and everybody, from Akingbola, Ibru, and even Umaru Mutllab.