EFCC Has Not Dropped Charges Against Diezani, Others. – TheNigerialawyer

The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
EFCC has been drawn to reports currently circulating in the social
media, purporting that the Commission had dropped the criminal
charge against a former minister of petroleum resources, Diezani
Alison-Madueke and other persons indicted for money laundering.

The Commission enjoins members of the public to disregard the
report which is false and misleading. At no time did the Commission
withdraw the charge, which is still before Justice Muslim Hassan of
the Federal High Court, Lagos.

The only development was that the Commission took a
prosecutorial decision to split the initial 14-count charge to
enable separate arraignment of the defendants following a spate of
adjournments that prevented the arraignment of the defendants more
than one year after the case was listed.

The charges were first filed on November 28, 2018. Since then,
every attempt to arraign the defendants had been frustrated by one
excuse or the other. In more than four times that the matter was
called for arraignment, it was either that Lanre Adesanya was sick
and bedridden in a London Hospital or Nnamdi Okonkwo was
hypertensive and on admission in a hospital or StanleyLawson had
had a domestic accident and could not appear in court.

It was clear that these recurring excuses were ploys to
frustrate the arraignment. To get around this, the Commission took
a deliberate decision, which was disclosed in open court, to
separately prosecute the defendants in different courts. This
explains why the four-count amended charge brought against Dauda
Lawal, a former executive director of First Bank, did not include
other defendants, except the two who are at large( Diezani
Alison-Madueke and Ben Otti). And the ingredients of the offence
stated therein only pertains to Lawal’s involvement in the alleged
crime, which is the receipt of $25million from the $153million 2015
Peoples Democratic Party presidential election slush fund.

The non-inclusion of other defendants in the original charge in
the amended four-count charge does not mean that they have been
exonerated by the Commission of any criminal allegation.

Subscribe ToNairalaw News!