EFCC slams 130 fresh charges against Elumelu, 8 others
The nine accused persons have also been separated in the fresh charges, a statement from EFCC’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, said. According to the statement, the three lawmakers are jointly facing a 62-count charge while the other six accused persons are jointly facing a 68-count charge. The three lawmakers are: Elumelu, House of Representatives Committee Chairman […]
The nine accused persons have also been separated in the fresh charges, a statement from EFCC’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, said.
According to the statement, the three lawmakers are jointly facing a 62-count charge while the other six accused persons are jointly facing a 68-count charge. The three lawmakers are: Elumelu, House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Power, Senator Nicholas Yahaya Ugbane, Senate Committee Chairman on Power and Hon. Jibo Mohammed.
The other accused are Engr. Samuel Ibi Gekpe, Dr. Abdullahi Aliyu, Simon Kirdi Nanle, Engr. Lawrence Kayode Orekoya, Abdulsamad Garba Jahun and Barrister Kayode Oyedeji.
Count three and Four being charges against the lawmakers state that while the duo of Ugbane and Elumelu were serving as the Committee Chairman on Power in the Senate and the House respectively, in 2008, alongside Hon. Jibo Mohammed who is Elumelu’s deputy, conspired among themselves to the commit offences, to wit: the purported award of Grid Extension and Solar Electrification contracts from the Amended Budget 2008 of the Rural Electrification Agency, REA, and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 97(1) of the penal Code Act Cap 532 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, Abuja, 1990.
The count two of the amended charge reads that Ugbane, Elumelu and Mohammed, sometime in December 2008, in Abuja abetted the commission of an offence to wit: Criminal breach of trust by public servants in the purported award of 4 (Nos.) Solar Electrification contracts to Helping Hands International Ltd, cumulatively amounting to N119, 669, 654.28 which contracts were unlawfully awarded from the 2008 amended Budget of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA); and thereby committed an offence under Section 85 of the Penal Code Act Cap 532 laws of the federation of Nigeria, 1990.
In one of the charges preferred against six of the other nine accused persons, Gekpe, Dr. Aliyu, Nanle, Kayode Orekoya, Abdulsamad Garba Jahun and Barrister Kayode Oyedeji all senior officials the Rural Electrification Agency, they were alleged to have sometime in December 2008, as public servants and officers who were entrusted with money and property of the agency agreed among themselves to breach such trust by fraudulently awarding contract for Grid Extension and Solar Electricity from the amended budget 2008 of the Rural Electrification Agency(REA).
Justice Abimbola Banjoko, after listening to the 130 count-charge read out one by one to the nine accused, adjourned the case till November 5, 2009 for hearing of motion by Senator Ugbane.