The Federal Government, yesterday, slammed 43-count charge on former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd); former Minister of State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda; former Sokoto State Governor, Attahiru Bafarawa and his son, Sagir.
Others charged with them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on behalf of the Federal Government are: High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, founder and Chairman Emeritus of Daar Communications Plc and Daar Investment and Holdings Limited; former Finance Director in the office of the NSA, Shuaibu Salisu and Aminu Baba Kusa.
Other suspects charged by the anti-graft agency are private companies said to have received huge sums from the ONSA without any clear and specified reasons.
They are: Acacia Holdings Limited, Reliance Referral Hospital Limited and Dalhatu Investments Limited.
A breakdown of the charges, which Vanguard obtained last night, showed that the former NSA, Dasuki, Shauibu Salisu, Aminu Baba Kusa, Acacia Holdings Limited and Reliance Referral Hospital Limited were slammed with a total of 19 charges bordering on money laundering, diversion of public funds and breach of public trust among others.
Similarly, Bashir Yuguda, Sambo Dasuki, Shuaibu Salisu, Dalhatu Investment Ltd, Sagir Attahiru and Attahiru Bafarawa were charged with 22 counts.
High Chief Dokpesi and his company, Daar Investment and Holdings Limited were slammed with two counts each.
The cases have been filed with the Federal High Court but not yet assigned to any judge, according to findings by our correspondent.
Vanguard had reported exclusively on Monday that the EFCC was set to press charges against the suspects this week but did not specify the date.
The agency had used most part of last Sunday grilling the suspects and confronting them with details of the illicit transactions that made the Federal Government to lose huge sums of money.
Dasuki has already challenged the Federal Government for trying to investigate and bring him to book for the alleged offence and breach of his fundamental rights.
The case is before Justice Ademola Adeniyi.
Also, Dokpesi in an ex-parte application he filed through his lawyer, Mr. Mike Ozehkome, SAN, urged the court to grant him bail on liberal terms, pending his formal arraignment before a court of competent jurisdiction.
Instead of granting the motion, Justice Kolawole, in a chamber ruling last Friday, ordered Dokpesi’s lawyer to go and put the Federal Government on notice, even as he adjourned the matter till December 14.
The court also directed EFCC to produce Dokpesi before it on that day.
However, few hours after the order was made, EFCC granted administrative bail to Dokpesi.
In his application dated December 3, Dokpesi told the court that he was detained for more than 48 hours without the EFCC entering any charge against him.
Ozehkome told the court that his client was on December 1 summoned via the telephone to report to the EFCC headquarters in Abuja.
He said Dokpesi has since then remained in custody on the anti-graft agency, adding that he was grilled for so many hours despite the fact that he did not have fore knowledge of why he was wanted by the EFCC. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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The EFCC must apply the law correctly in prosecution of cases. The accused persons must not escape on the basis of ordinary technicalities. A clear example is Dokpesi's application to the court on being arrested and kept in EFCC custody without charge for longer than the law allows.
ReplyDeleteIn any charge, the law must be respected and due process must be followed.
Stealing money that belong to 170 million nigerians, infact they deserve maximum punishment.
ReplyDelete