Elder
Godsday Orubebe, Nigeria’s minister of Niger Delta Affairs under former
President Goodluck Jonathan, has been acquitted by an Abuja High Court sitting
at Apo.
Orubebe
secured the victory on Tuesday, March 4th as the court reportedly struck out
the six-count charge slammed on him by the Independent Corrupt Practices and
Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over his alleged complicity in a N1.97
billion contract fraud.
It was
learnt that the Attorney General of the Federation and minister of Justice, Mr
Abubakar Malami, in a letter to chairman of the ICPC, with Ref No
DPPA/MNDA/345/16, confirmed that the N1,965,576,153.46, which Orubebe was
claimed to have diverted, had not been touched, “but is awaiting further
contract decisions and directives from the Ministry of Niger-Delta Affairs.”
Vanguard
reports that in the letter signed by the director of public prosecution and
dated December 16, 2016, the AGF said: “In view of the above, the basis for the
prosecution of the accused persons for misappropriation does not exist and
thus, further prosecution cannot be justified.”
Justice
Olukayode Adeniyi discharged and acquitted the defendants, after the charge was
then withdrawn by the ICPC counsel, Mr Ekoi Akpos. The report said the charge
was withdrawn same day the court asked the ICPC to produce its witnesses to
establish that Orubebe actually diverted funds meant for the compensation of
owners of properties on Eket urban section of the East-West Road in Eket, Akwa
Ibom state.
The report
gave the other defendants as an assistant director at the ministry of
Niger-Delta Affairs, Mr Oludare Davis Alaba, and the director of contracts,
Gitto Costruzioni Generali Nig Ltd, Mr Ephraim Towede Zari.
No comments:
Post a Comment