Sunday Ejike, Author at Tribune Online

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has discharged and acquitted former Minister of Interior, Abba Moro in respect of the charges of fraud arising from the conduct of the botched Nigerian Immigration Service recruitment in 2014. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had in 2016, arraigned Abba Morro and three orders on an 11-count charge, bordering on allegations of obtaining money by pretext, procurement fraud and money laundering slammed on him and two others by the anti-graft agency. Justice Dimgba, who had, in 2020 quashed seven out of the eleven count charges against Abba Morro and his codefendants, following a no-case submission, on Thursday exonerated the former minister in the remaining four counts. The Court also, in the judgement, found the second defendant guilty in count four of the charge and also discharged the third defendant of charges in Counts 2, 4, 5 and 11. Abba Morro, now the Senator representing Benue south, was arraigned by the EFCC in 2016 along with former Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mrs Anastasia Daniel-Nwobia; and a deputy director in the ministry, Mr Femi Alayebami. Other defendants in the matter are one Mahmood Ahmadu (at large), and the contracting firm given the recruitment job, Drexel Tech Nigeria Ltd. In quashing the charges against Abba Morro, the court held that he, been the Minister of Interior, was neither a member of the Tenders Board nor, a member of the committee that recommended the setting up of an e-recruitment portal for the exercise. According to the judge, "The allegations against the first defendant were not properly proved by the prosecution", and held that the award of the contract was limited to only four companies and that the prosecution did not tell the court, the person that actually invited the four companies. He held that the prosecution could not prove how the first defendant abused his office and further held that, he found the first defendant not guilty of the charges preferred against him. However, the judge, in the judgement, convicted Abba Morro's co-defendant, a former Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Interior, Anastasia Daniel-Nwobia over the botched Immigration recruitment in 2014 that led to the death of about 20 people. The judge, while convicting the former Perm-Sec, held that, as the accounting officer of the ministry, she was responsible for ensuring that the award of contracts are done in compliance with the Pubic Procurement Act and, Having found that there was no approval from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) before inviting the four companies, I found the second defendant guilty in count four". Justice Dimgba who also discharged and acquitted the third defendant in count four, which he noted, carries a maximum of five years jail term without an option of fine, however, he deferred sentencing of Mrs Anastasia Daniel-Nwobia to April 27, 2022. The EFCC had, accused the defendants of defrauding 675,675 graduate applicants of N675,675,000, with each of the applicants made to pay N1,000 to access an e-portal to apply for job openings. The physical aspect of the recruitment test in March 2014 led to the death of about 20 applicants, as many others were injured in stampedes in Abuja, Port Harcourt and Minna during the exercise. The prosecution closed its case with 12 witnesses and 57 documentary exhibits on November 25, 2019. YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state... Selfies, video calls and Chinese documentaries: The things you’ll meet onboard Lagos-Ibadan train The Lagos-Ibadan railway was inaugurated recently for a full paid operation by the Nigerian Railway Corporation after about a year of free test-run. Our reporter joined the train to and fro Lagos from Ibadan and tells his experience in this report...