The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Tuesday May 14,
2013 arraigned Aliyu Bello, a former Special Assistant to the Director of
Administration ( Pension account) at the Office of the Head of Civil Service of
the Federation and Abdullahi Omeiza, a school teacher at Sokoto alongside their
companies, Fafama Estate Developers and Fafama Oil and Gas Limited before
Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja on a 5-count charge
bordering on criminal conversion and
obtaining over One Billion naira (N1billion) by false pretence
The accused persons, who pleaded not guilty to the charge, are
among nine civil servants who allegedly conspired and used “third parties” to
siphon monies meant for pensioners across the country. Omeiza who is an
associate of Aliyu is alleged to have used more than 12 accounts bearing
fictitious names to collect pension arrears and gratuity from the OHCSF.
One of the charges read: “that you Aliyu Bello and Abdullahi
Omeiza, at various times between 2009 and 2010 within the jurisdiction of this
honorable court, obtain by false pretence and with intent to defraud, from
pension account, Office of the Head of Service of the Federation of Nigeria,
various sums in the aggregate amount of 281,623,351.87 (two hundred and eighty
one million, six hundred and twenty three thousand, three hundred and fifty one
naira, eighty seven kobo) through
various third parties and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 1(1)
(A) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006 and
punishable under section 1(3) of the same Act”.
Based on the plea of the accused persons, counsel to EFCC,
Emmanuel Eguagwu asked the court to fix a date for the commencement of trial.
However, counsel to the accused, Okey Onyianta prayed the court to
admit the accused persons to bail on the grounds that they have been on administrative
bail and had been reporting to the EFCC whenever they were needed.
However, Justice Ademola insisted on a formal bail application in
line with the procedure of court. He subsequently remanded the accused in
prison custody and adjourned proceedings to July 1, 2, and 3, 2013 for hearing
on bail application and continuation of trial.
Wilson Uwujaren
Ag.
Head, Media & Publicity
No comments:
Post a Comment