Tag: remanded

A Federal Capital Territory High Court yesterday remanded the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Administration, Farouk Lawan, in prison custody for one week.

Also remanded in prison for the same period by the court is the Secretary of the Adhoc Committee on Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy Regime, Boniface Emenalo.

Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi handed down the remand order after the duo pleaded not guilty to a seven-count charge of conspiracy to corruptly obtain $3 million from the oil mogul, Femi Otedola, to remove his company, Zenon Petroleum and Gas Company, from the list of indicted firms.

The alleged offences are contrary to Sections 8(1), 10 (a)(ii), 17(1)(a), 23(1) and 26(1)(c), and punishable under Sections 8(1), 10, 17(1) and 23(3) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.

Lawan was mentioned in four counts (counts one to four) of the charge, while Emenalo was mentioned in counts 1, 5, 6 and 7.

Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), the private prosecutor hired by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke (SAN), said the alleged offences attract a two to seven-year jail term.

He informed the court that investigation into the case had been concluded and that he had filed his list of witnesses who are ready to testify.

He then applied that the accused persons be placed in prison custody pending the date of trial.

Counsel to the accused,Mr. Rickey Tarfa (SAN), swiftly filed a formal bail application and said the defence team was served the charges late on Thursday.

He prayed the court to exercise its discretion by admitting the accused to bail.

The application was pursuant to Sextions 35 and 36(5) of the 1999 Constitution as amended and Sections 340 and 341(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).

Tarfa told the court that the accused were on administrative bail and had never violated it .

He said: ”The first accused has had cause to travel out four times since the commencement of the investigation. He has been a member of the House since 1999. He is currently chairing the Committee on Financial Administration.”

Citing the case of Onwubagu v State, 2008, All Federation Law Report, pt. 420 on page 764 and the case of Ebute v State, 1994, 8 Nigeria Weekly Law Report (NWLR), pt. 360 on page 66, Tarfa urged the court to note that the accused persons voluntarily submitted themselves.

Chief Awomolo opposed the bail application and urged the court to note the nature of the offences and the likelihood of the accused persons committing fresh ones.

He said:”The offence the accused are charged for is corruption at the highest level, particularly in the legislative arm.

“The accused person, in his affidavit, did not give an undertaking that he will not be a member of another committee and that he will not demand or receive bribe”.

This submission drew laughter from the court.

Asked by the judge if it was illegal for the accused to be a committee member, Awomolo replied that there was no assurance that “what prompted them to demand $3 million will not make them to demand 10 million. My lord they need to give an undertaking”.

The prosecutor said that Lawan was part of the legislators that enacted the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, and that the accused persons “knew the intention of the lawmakers, now they are part of the violators”.

Replying on point of law, Tarfa urged the court to discountenance the submission of the prosecutor.

He said since investigation has been concluded there is no likelihood of interference by the accused persons.

He added that the provision of the ICPC Act cited by Awomolo does not take away the discretion of the court in granting bail.

Ruling, Justice Oniyangi said: “In the circumstances of this application which was filed this morning (yesterday) and argued this morning, the court needs time to consider same.

“The matter is adjourned till February 8 for ruling and possibly hearing. Meanwhile, pending the determination of the application, the accused is to be remanded in prison custody.”

Meanwhile, the current move by the office of Attorney General of the Federation to single out Hon Farouk Lawan for prosecution over the bribery scandal, while leaving out his counterpart, Mr Femi Otedola, has been condemned by the Northern youths.

Reacting to the prosecution of Lawan by the Federal Government, Alhaji Shettima Yerima, President of the Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, AYCF, in a statement issued at the weekend in Lagos, accused the Presidency of connivance and bias in the handling of the Otedola/Farouk saga.

The Arewa chieftain said by isolating Lawan for prosecution and tacitly dumping the House of Representatives fuel subsidy probe resolution, the Presidency appeared desperate to tilt both the subsidy scam and bribery scandal in favour of its protégé, Mr Femi Otedola.

Alhaji Shettima Yerima, however, accused Otedola of also trying to influence the course of justice by maliciously sponsoring some notable activists to compel the Federal Government to charge his counterpart, Lawan, to court over the bribery saga involving both of them

He said under the law the Nigerian Presidency has no justification to leave out Otedola from the ongoing prosecution of the bribery allegation because, according to him, both givers and takers of bribes are conventionally culpable of bribery offence

“What is the intention of the contrived bribery by Otedola in the first place? Our structures have been inundated with reports of the subtle conspiracy between the Presidency and Otedola to undermine the House committee probe on fuel subsidy scam which found Otedola and his cohorts culpable.

“We, however, wish to warn the Federal Government not to compromise equity and justice in this matter. What is good for the gander is good geese. Femi Otedola must also be brought to justice for admitting masterminding bribery and for his alleged culpability in the fuel subsidy scam,” the AYCF said.

Condemning what the group perceived as a ploy to discredit and jettison the House report on the fuel subsidy scam on account of the masterminded bribery plot, the group urged the Federal Government to immediately commence action on the lawmakers’ resolution in order not to provoke its mass intervention in concert with other civil society groups

A Magistrate’s Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, yesterday ordered 13 persons, including the traditional ruler of Aluu community, Alhaji Hassan Welewa, to be remanded in prison custody for the murder of four University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) students.

The accused are standing trial for the murder of Tuko Lloyd, Ugonna Obuzor, Tekena Elkanah and Chidiaka Biringa, who were believed to have been framed up as robbers and lynched in Omiakiri–Aluu, Rivers State, on October 5.

The charge sheet indicated that the accused faced a five-count charge of murder, felony, conspiracy, lynching and burning.

They included Lucky Orji, a 43-year-old former police sergeant who reportedly partook in the murder. He is listed as the third accused.

Rivers State Commissioner of Police Mohammed Ndabawa, who is the plaintiff, was represented by Adiari Idafi, a sergeant.

Idafi told Magistrate Emmanuel C. Woke that the suspects allegedly killed the four UNIPORT students.

He identified the accused as Hassan Welewa (59), Lawal Segun (28), Cynthia Chinwo (24), George Nwadei (20), Ekpe Daniel (30) listed as 1st, 2nd, 4th – 6th accused respectively.

Others are Okoghiroh Endurance (24), Gabriel Oche (33), Ozioma Abajuo (23), Endurance Edet (27), Ikechukwu Louis Amadi (aka Kapoon) (32), David Chinasa Ugbaje (30) and Chigozie Evans Samuel, listed as 7th – 13th accused in that order.

The offence is punishable under Section 314 of the Criminal Code Cap 37 Laws of Rivers State, Nigeria, 1999 and Section 319 of the Criminal Code Cap 37 Vol. III laws of Rivers state, Nigeria, 1999.

Although the charges were read to the 13 accused persons, who said they understood the crimes they were standing trial for, their pleas were not taken.

Woke ordered that the accused be remanded in police custody for further investigation and adjourned the case till December 20.

The suspected killers are facing a five-count charge, including conspiracy and murder.

Count one reads: “That the 13 accused persons and others at large, on October 5, 2012, at Omuokiri-Aluu community in the Port Harcourt Magisterial District, did conspire among yourselves to commit felony to wit: murder and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 324 of the Criminal Code Cap 37 Laws of Rivers State, 1999.

Count two: “That the accused persons and others at large, on the same date and place, in the aforesaid Magisterial District, did murder one Ugonna Obuzor by lynching and burnt him to death and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 319 of the Criminal Code Cap 37, Volume 111 Laws of Rivers State, 1999.

UNIPORT Vice-Chancellor Prof. Joseph Ajienka said only justice will satisfy the bereaved families and members of the public that watched the gory lynching of the students.

Prof. Ajienka said staff and students of UNIPORT, who live off-campus in Aluu, no longer feel safe in the neighbourhood. He said the authorities of the university were still monitoring the situation and would meet “at the right time” to decide on resumption date.

He noted that the removal of a former Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), UNIPORT chapter, Dr. Andrew Efemini, as the Acting Head of Department of Philosophy, for participating in the October 9 protest, was being looked into by a committee.

The vice-chancellor spoke at the Council Chambers of the university while giving an update on the murder.

The VC added: “The barbaric killing of four students of UNIPORT enraged the world and affected the sensibility of all reasonable people, who cherish the sanctity of human life and the universal brotherhood of all humanity. It diminished our common humanity.

“I need not recall the global outrage, which the gory incident ignited around the world, when it was first reported in the popular press. We have reached out to the families of the bereaved and consoled them on their irreparable losses, which are also our own losses.

“Many of our staff and students no longer feel safe in the Aluu neighbourhood. I have a responsibility to all of them,” he said.

The VC said: “The HOD is a statutory member of the university administration, who is responsible to the vice-chancellor, through the dean of the faculty, in the discharge of his or her duties.

“One level of leadership or authority does not undermine a higher level of leadership, in the pursuit of personal principles or ideological differences, let alone make inciting public statements on a very delicate situation that is capable of engineering a mob action.

“Dr. Efemini is perfectly free to exercise his freewill as he considers necessary, as guaranteed him by the relevant sections of the Nigerian Constitution. Nobody challenged Dr. Efemini’s democratic right to advertise his grievances the way he deems fit and proper, as a free citizen of Nigeria and an academic.”