10 corruption cases to watch in 2017

1.  Dame Patience Jonathan $15.5 scandal The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had instituted  investigations into the $15m frozen in four company accounts, which Patience had laid claim to.  The EFCC had invited DSS officials who were attached to the immediate past First Lady to explain their roles in the scandal since the commission had […]

1.  Dame Patience Jonathan $15.5 scandal

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had instituted  investigations into the $15m frozen in four company accounts, which Patience had laid claim to.

 The EFCC had invited DSS officials who were attached to the immediate past First Lady to explain their roles in the scandal since the commission had evidence that the DSS officials had, on several occasions, deposited money into some of the accounts in Skye Bank between 2013 and 2015.

However, the former First Lady has not been invited by the anti-graft agency even after she had laid claim to the huge sum of money. Instead, she has taken EFCC to court for daring to investigate her.

The EFCC had stumbled on four company bank accounts in Skye Bank while investigating a former Special Adviser to Jonathan on Domestic Affairs, Waripamowei Dudafa.

 The names of the four companies are: Pluto Property and Investment Company Limited; Seagate Property Development and Investment Company Limited; Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Limited; and Globus Integrated Service Limited. The joint balance of the accounts, as of the time it was frozen, was said to be $15, 591,700.

The four companies standing trial before a Federal High Court in Lagos have since pleaded guilty to money laundering.

Jonathan’s wife has, however, accused the EFCC of hiring mercenaries as directors of the company in an attempt to steal her hard-earned money.

Patience, who has sued Skye Bank for N200m, also has another account under the name ‘Patience Ibifaka Jonathan’ in the bank, which had a balance of $5m. The account was, however, not frozen by the commission.

2.   Sambo Dasuki: The former National Security Adviser’s $2.1 billion corruption case maybe mind boggling but it looks like it will linger on for a while.

Dasuki was thrown into jail since December 2015 and even though he had been granted bail by court, the Federal Government has refused to comply. He remains incarcerated while his case, alongside others, will come up in court on January 25, 2017 in an Abuja High Court.

3.  The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had probed a former minister of Petroleum, Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke over misappropriation of $10 billion slush fund, in which her property assets in Abuja worth N4billion were frozen in Abuja while the EFCC were also facilitating the freezing of her assets worth N3 billion in Port Harcourt.

 The anti-graft agency has also frozen Diezani’s foreign bank accounts in the United Kingdom and in Switzerland while the Federal Government through the Attorney General of the Federation is working to freeze her United States property.

Despite all these, she is yet to be arraigned in court. However, Jide Omokore, a business associate of Diezani’s is currently on bail after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission arrested and charged him over fraud.

4. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had  arraigned in absentia, a former Niger Delta militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo (alias Tompolo) before a Federal High Court in Lagos.

The militant  was arraigned alongside six brothers of a former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Patrick Akpobolokemi.

They were arraigned on a 22-count charge bordering on N47 billion fraud early in 2016.

While Tompolo is still at large and nobody knows when he will make himself available for trial,  his accomplice, Patrick Akpobolokemi was arraigned alongside three others, Josephine Otuaga, Rita Uruakpa and Kime Engozu.

Meanwhile, the EFCC has frozen some of his identified assets.

5. A former Governor of Adamawa State, Alhaji Murtala  Nyako and his son, Abdulraziz Nyako, now a senator representing Adamawa Central on the platform of APC were  re-arraigned in their N29 billion money laundering trial in September.

The charges against the defendants include criminal conspiracy, abuse of office, opening of multiple bank accounts and stealing to the tune of N29 billion.

The defendants, who were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), allegedly opened over 30 different accounts with Zenith Bank Plc. with the money between 2011 and 2013.

6. A former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (rtd) has been charged with N3.97 billion case of corruption. Badeh was granted N2 billion bail but his case is expected to drag on in 2017.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had said it traced 17 accounts to former Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (retd).

Badeh was in January arrested for the non-specification of procurement costs, absence of contract agreements, award of contracts beyond authorised thresholds, transfer of public funds for unidentified purposes and general non-adherence to provisions of the Public Procurement Act.

7.  Oliseh Metuh, a former spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was been charged in 2 different cases.

 He was charged with laundering N400 Million for which he was granted N400 bail.

 He was also charged with criminal destruction of evidence but granted bail of N300 million.  Metuh however, appealed asking his case to be dismissed. The Appeal court ruled against him stating he has a case to answer. The case is also expected to drag on in 2017.

8 . The EFCC had also charged  a former minister under President Olusegun Obasanjo, Femi Fani-Kayode and others  with N4.9 billion fraud. He was however granted N250 million bail. The former PDP chieftain sued the Feeral Government over his two months detention by the EFCC but Justice Adeniyi ruled against him stating that  the EFCC was acting within its statutory mandate.

9. Senate President Bukola Saraki’s false assets declaration trial seems to linger on endlessly. In April, a Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed his application to stop the trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal in Abuja. The Supreme Court had also dismissed Saraki’s application challenging the jurisdiction of the tribunal to try him.

10. The arrest of judges over corruption allegations appeared to be the climax of the fight against corruption. On October 8, the Department of state services (DSS) raided homes of some senior judges across the country. Justices Sylvester Ngwuta and John I. Okoro of the Supreme Court were arrested. Also arrested in the sting operation were Justices Adeniyi Ademola and Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court Abuja and Justice Mua’azu Pindiga of the High Court, Gombe. Justices Ngwuta and Ademola have so far been arraigned over charges of judicial misconduct, money laundering, illegal possession of multiple travel passports and firearms. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted bail.