A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has fixed April 5, 2023 to deliver judgment in the alleged N2billion fraud charge filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against a former Head of Service of the Federation, Mr Stephen Oronsaye, and two others.
LEADERSHIP reports the trial of the former Head of Service and others, has been on for over seven years now.
The trial judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo, fixed the date on Wednesday after counsels in the matter adopted their final written addresses.
Adopting his address on behalf of the prosecution, Mr Oluwaleke Atolagbe prayed the court to consider all the evidence the prosecution presented before it.
Atolagbe also urged the court to consider the testimonies of all the 21 witnesses the prosecution called in convicting and sentencing the defendants.
He urged the court to uphold his argument and deliver its judgment in his favour.
For his part, counsel to Oronsaye, Mr Ade Okeanya-Inneh, SAN, also prayed the court to discharge and acquit his client on the ground that the prosecution failed to produce enough evidence to warrant a conviction.
“When the court is considering all the submissions made by the prosecution, the only question that the court should ask is where is the evidence,” the senior lawyer said.
Also, adopting his final address on behalf of the 2nd and 3rd defendants, Mr Oluwole Aladedoyin urged the court to dismiss the remaining 27 counts still standing against the defendants.
Aladedoyin said his prayer was premised on the fact that the charge against his clients was unmeritorious and should have never been filed as there was no evidence to back it.
He urged the court to discharge and acquit his clients.
The case began in 2015 with the arraignment of Oronsaye alongside the Managing Director of Fedrick Hamilton Global Services Limited, Mr Osarenkhoe Afe.
They were docked on 49 count charges bordering on fraud. But the charges were later amended after the anti-graft Commission separated the parts involving a former head of Presidential Pension Task Force, Abdulrasheed Maina, who was then at large.
Maina was later charged separately by the EFCC and was subsequently convicted and sentenced to eight years imprisonment in November 2021.
Equally charged alongside Oronsaye by the EFCC were three companies – Cluster Logistic Limited; Kangolo Dynamic Cleaning Limited, and Drew Investment & Construction Company Limited.
The anti-graft agency alleged that the defendants had between 2010 and 2011, used the firms to divert public funds through procurement fraud.
The EFCC equally accused Orosanye and the others of using inflated biometrics enrolment contracts, collective allowances and other schemes to siphon money from accounts containing pensioners’ funds.
The commission also tendered a report of the Auditor-General of the Federation on federal government’s pension accounts which indicted Oronsaye and others of wrongdoing.
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