By Deborah Nnamdi
The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday fixed November 3 for the arraignment of three staff members of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, that allegedly defrauded the Federal Government to the tune of $ 6.3 million.
The defendants- Adamu Abubakar, Imam Abubakar, and Odoh Ochene- were said to have used bogus letters from the Presidency and the Office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) before the 2023 general elections.
According to the prosecution, the trio, armed with the fake letters, obtained the money in cash from the apex bank on a false claim that it was meant for the settlement of foreign election observers.
Meanwhile, though the case was originally fixed for the defendants to be docked on Thursday, however, Government lawyer, Mr. Celestine Odoh, informed the court that they had since escaped from the country.
According to the prosecution counsel, every effort to locate them has proved abortive, a situation he said led FG to solicit help from the International Police, Interpol.
Odoh told the court that so far, the whereabouts of the defendants remained unknown as Interpol had yet to fish them out from where they were hiding outside the shores of the country.
He decried that the accused persons, who are on the “Watchlist”, have not surfaced in any area where Interpol could locate and arrest them.
Consequently, he prayed to the court for a long adjournment to enable the government to intensify efforts to bring the defendants to justice.
While acceding to the adjournment request, trial Justice Inyang Ekwo noted that it has been over a year since the court issued a warrant of arrest against the three defendants.
It will be recalled that the office of the then Special Investigator of the CBN, Mr. Jim Obazee, had applied to the court and obtained a bench warrant for the arrest of the defendants.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had in the charge it filed before the court, alleged that the defendants had on February 8, 2023, connived to obtain $6.2m from the CBN, claiming that the money was requested by the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha “vide a letter dated 26 January 2023 with Ref No. SGF.43/L.01/.”
