Skip to main content

Court Adjourns Hearing In Ofili-Ajumogobia’s Case To February

A Federal High Court in Lagos, on Monday stayed proceedings until February 6, 2020 in the alleged money laundering trial of embattled Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia.

Justice Mohammed Aikawa said that he will stay proceedings to await the outcome of a letter to the Chief Judge of the court seeking a re-assignment of the case.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission charged Ofili-Ajumogobia and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Godwin Obla, on 18 counts bordering on conspiracy, unlawful enrichment, retention of crime proceeds and money laundering.

The defendants were re-arraigned on May 15 and had both pleaded not guilty to all counts of the charge.

The court had granted them bail in the sum of N10m each with two sureties in like sum.

During the commencement of the case, Chief Robert Clarke (SAN) had appeared for the first defendant, while Chief Ferdinand Orbih (SAN) had appeared for the second defendant.

When the case was called on Monday, Mr U.U Buhari appeared for the prosecution while Mobolaji Kuti and Ferdinard Orbih (SAN) appeared for the first and second defendants respectively.

Buhari then informed the court that the prosecution was ready to proceed with trial. See Also CRIME Ajumogobia Money Laundering Case: Court To Deliver Judgment On Preliminary Objection

But Orbih informed the court that the defence had written a letter to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court on November 14 in relation to the instant case, while on November 26 it took further steps to notify the court of its action.

The said letter seeks a re-assignment of the case.

He then urged the court in the circumstance to grant a time frame to enable the CJ arrive at a decision one way or the other in respect of the letter.

EFCC alleged that the duo conspired on May 21, 2014 to indirectly conceal different sums of money in the Diamond Bank account of Nigel & Colive Ltd, a company alleged to be operated by Ofili-Ajumogobia.

They were alleged to have conspired to retain in same account the sum of N500m, which they both reasonably ought to have known formed part of proceeds of unlawful acts of unlawful enrichment.

The EFCC also accused Ofili-Ajumogobia of indirectly concealing the sum of N12m in the same account, and making false statement to the anti-graft agency that the money was payment for sale of a landed property.

The alleged offences contravenes the provisions of Sections 15 (2) (a) and 18 (a) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011.

Corruption CRIME Legal News AddThis :  Original Author :  SaharaReporters, New York Disable advertisements : 

from All Content
via

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Nigerian Academy Of Science Inducts First Female President

The Nigerian Academy of Science has inducted a professor of Parasitology/Epidemiology, Ekanem Ikpi Braide, as its 19th President on Thursday. In a statement issued by Oladoyin Odubanjo, the Executive Secretary of the Academy, Braide is the Academy’s first female President in 44 years of existence. It read, “Braide was a member of the national committee that achieved the laudable feat of guinea worm eradication in Nigeria. “She has a rich professional experience as a researcher and an administrator. In July 2010, Professor Braide was honoured by the President of Nigeria with the award of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) for her contribution to disease control in Nigeria. “She was nominated by the Honourable Minister of Health to serve in the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee on COVID-19 Health Sector Response (MEACoC-HSR). “Professor Braide served as Vice-Chancellor, Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH) Calabar, Nigeria (2004 to 2009) and as P

NLNG Signs Letter Of Intent On Delayed Gas Expansion Project

The Nigerian Natural Liquefied Gas LTD has signed a letter of intent for the engineering, procurement and construction of its long held up Train Seven project. In a statement released by the company on Wednesday, it said that the $10bn project will be executed by a consortium of Italian firm Saipem, Japan’s Chiyoda and South Korea’s Daewoo. The statement reads, “The project will form part of the investment of over $10bn including the upstream scope of the LNG value chain, thereby boosting the much needed Foreign Direct Investment profile of Nigeria.” Managing Director of NLNG, Tony Atta, said in 2018 that the Final Investment Decision would be made in the fourth quarter of that year. This did not however, materialize. According to the release, the project will have a four to five-year execution time after the signing of the FID. The project is expected to add an extra 8 million tons per annum of gas to the 22 mtpa currently exported by the company. Oil News AddThis : 

Former Maritime Agency Boss, Buba Galadima, Accuses AMCON Of Witch-hunt After Property Takeover

  A former Director-General of the Nigeria Maritime Agency, Buba Galadima, has accused the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria of witch-hunt after the agency took possession of his business and assets on Tuesday in Abuja. Galadima, an ardent critic of President Muhammadu Buhari, claimed that he did not borrow money or have unpaid debt with Unity Bank, which lodged a complaint against him and occasioned AMCON’s move on Tuesday. The properties taken over include House No. 15, Addis Ababa Crescent, Wuse Zone 4, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and House No. 4, Bangui Street, Wuse 2, also in Abuja.  Reacting to the situation, Galadima said, “This is an attempt to disgrace and break me down. This is injustice and an attempt to humiliate me. "But I am unbreakable and they can never silence me. They sacked me and over 50 people that sleep in the apartment. "We don’t know where to go. We will remain on the streets. We will remain on the streets until God provi