The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday, August 4, 2020 re-arraigned former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mohamed Bello Adoke and Aliyu Abubakar before Justice I.E. Ekwo of the
Federal High Court, Abuja, on a 14-count
amended charge of money laundering to the
tune of over Six Million United States Dollars
($6,000,000).
In a statement obtained by our correspondent,Count one of the new
charges against Adoke
read: “That you Mohammed Bello Adoke,
sometime in September 2013, in Abuja, within
the jurisdiction of this honourable court, made a
cash payment of the sum of $2,267,400.00
(Two Million, Two Hundred and Sixty-Seven
Thousand, Four Hundred United States Dollars)
to one Rislaundeen Muhammed, and you
thereby committed an offence contrary to the
combined effects of Section 16(1) (d) and of
Section 1(a) of the Money Laundering
Prohibition Act 2011(as amended) and
punishable under Section 16(2)(b) of the same
Act.”
Going further, a new charge against Abubakar read. “That you Aliyu Abubakar, sometime in September 2013, in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, accepted a cash payment of the sum of $4,000,000.00 (Four Million United States Dollars) from Farmans Holdings Limited, through Abdulhakeem Uthman Mustapha, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to the combined effects of Section 16(1)(d) and of Section1(a) of the Money Laundering
Prohibition Act 2011 (as amended) and
punishable under Section 16(2)(b) of the same
Act.”
Both defendants pleaded not guilty to all the
charges, following which counsel to the second
defendant, Akin Olujimi, SAN, made an oral
application, challenging the jurisdiction of the
court to sit on the case while courts in the
country are on vacation.
Justice Ekwo in response advised the counsel
to make his application formal so that he could
rule on it. While reminding Olujimi that he could
exercise his discretion as it pleased him in his
court, he warned that a consequence of his
application may be the revocation of the bail of
his client.
Olujimi, for the interest of his client’s liberty,
beat a hasty retreat and withdrew the oral
application..
The judge adjourned the case till August 11, 12
and 13, 2020 for commencement of trial.
It will be recalled that the defendants were
arraigned on a seven-count charge before
Justice Binta Nyako, on March 1, 2020, re-
arraigned on June 17, 2020 on the same
number of charges before Justice Ekwo and re-
arraigned again, August 4, 2020 on 14-count
charge before the same judge.
