N5.3bn Fraud: Court reaffirms Order For Arrests Of Former Enugu Gov, Nnamani

N5.3bn Fraud: Court reaffirms Order For Arrests Of Former Enugu Gov, Nnamani

Justice Chuka Obiozor of the Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday reaffirmed the order for the arrest of former governor of Enugu State, Chimaroke Nnamani over an N4.5 billion fraud.

The court reaffirmed the order after refusing the plea to vacate the bench warrant made the former governor's lawyer, Mr. Rickey Tarfa (SAN ).

Justice Obiozor insisted that Nnamani must be arrested and produced before him at the next sitting of the court to face the criminal charge brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The court had earlier struck out an application filed by Nnamani in which he was challenging the jurisdiction of the court to try him and also for a perpetual injunction to restrain the EFCC from arresting him.

The judge threw out application after Tarfa had asked to withdraw same.

The judge, thereafter, adjourned the case till February 20, 2018, at the instance of the EFCC prosecutor,  Kelvin Uzozie, who pleaded for time to consult with the anti-graft agency on how to proceed with the case.

It would recalled that Justice Obiozor, had on December 4, issued a bench warrant against the former governor and one Sunday Onyekazuru Anyaogu, for their failure to attend the court.

This fresh arraignment is coming ten years after the ex-governor and others were first arraigned before the court in connection with the alleged offence .

Nnamani was earlier arraigned before Justice Tijani Abubakar in 2007 and re-arraigned before Justice Charles Archibong when Tijani Abubakar was elevated to court of appeal.

He was later re-arraigned before Mohammed Yinusa when Justice Archibong was retired.

The former Governor was re -arraigned before Justice Yinusa, who had also retried from the bench, on a 105-count charge of money laundering and economic crime to the tune of N4.5 billion.

The ex-governor was arraigned before the court alongside his ex-aide, Sunday Anyaogu and six firms linked to them.

They are: Rainbownet Nig Ltd, Hillgate Nig Ltd, Cosmos FM, Capital City Automobile Nig Ltd, Renaissance University Teaching Hospital and Mea Mater Elizabeth High School.

The alleged financial impropriety was alleged to have been committed while Nnamani held sway as governor of Enugu state between 1999 and 2007.

Nnamani, according to the charge, was alleged to have conspired with other accused persons to launder various statutory allocations of some local government areas of Enugu State.
The local governments are: Aninri, Enugu South, Agwu, Igbo Etiti and Isi Uzor.

They had initially pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Refusing Tarfa’s prayer for the discharge of the bench warrant against Nnamani, Justice Obiozor held, “The request for an order to discharge the bench warrant against the first defendant before me, for now, is hereby refused. This is without prejudice to the renewal of the application at the next adjourned date.”

Earlier after withdrawing the application challenging the court’s jurisdiction and seeking a perpetual injunction against the EFCC, Tarfa had contended that there was no valid charge against Nnamani before the court.

He said a plea bargain had been entered in the case , leading to the conviction of the 3rd to 8th defendants.

But Uzozie explained that though there was a plea bargain in respect of the 3 rd to 8 th defendants, the case of Nnamani and his ex-aide, Sunday Anyaogu, who were joined as first and second defendants, had yet to be concluded.

“We are working on an amendment of the charge to reflect the proper situation. We will ask the court to indulge us by way of an adjournment to bring a clean copy of the charge sheet,” Uzozie said.

As the defence counsel did not oppose the application for an adjournment, the judge granted same.