Court Hands Over Police Lawyer To EFCC For Filing Criminal Charges Against Stella Oduah

There was a mild drama at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday, when a Judge of the Court, Justice James Omotosho, handed a Police lawyer, Ibrahim Mohammed, to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for filing a criminal charge against Senator Stella Adaeze Oduah.

The police lawyer is to be investigated for filing the 8-count criminal charges against the former Minister of Aviation in the name of EFCC without the authority of the anti-graft agency.

Although, the embattled lawyer, who left the EFCC since November last year, admitted error in filing the controversial charges with the name of the anti-graft agency, the Judge nonetheless ordered that the genuiness of his errors must be established through investigation.

Justice Omotosho had queried the police lawyer on whether the anti-graft agency was in the know of the charges since it was being prosecuted by the Police.

Senator Oduah was expected to be arraigned before the court on eight count charge bordering on alleged complicity surrounding her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate and fraudulently receiving money from the federal government.

However, when the matter was called, Stella Oduah was not in court and the Judge sought to know why she was absent in court.

Responding, Mohammed, who introduced himself as a lawyer with the Police Legal Department, Force Headquarters, Abuja, told the court that the defendant was not in court because she has not been served with the charge.

According to him, Senator Oduah had told them she was not feeling well when invited to come for the charge.

Reacting, the court queried why the charge was coming in the name of EFCC when the prosecutor is from Police.

The police lawyer, who suddenly became incoherent in answering questions from the Judge, admitted that he left EFCC since November 2022 at Benin City office for the Force Headquarters on redeployment back to Police.

He also admitted filing the charges on June 22 this year in the name of EFCC, seven months after, but that it was done in error.

Justice Omotoso, who was not pleased with the claim of the error, ordered his Registrar to bring the head of Police Unit at the Federal High Court into the courtroom.

The Judge then ordered the Police personnel to lead the police lawyer to the EFCC headquarters and hand him over to EFCC operatives for investigation on the genuiness of the criminal charges.

Meanwhile, further hearing in the matter has been shifted to July 18 when the anti-graft agency must have completed its investigation and report back to the court.