April 27, 2010 10:31AM
An Abuja High Court yesterday fixed May 3, for the arraignment of
Vincent Ogbulafor, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic
Party for defrauding the federal government of N100 million.
Justice Ishaq Bello granted leave for the Independent Corrupt
Practices and Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to prosecute Mr
Ogbulafor and four others on a 16 count charge of corruption and money
laundering. The other accused persons are; Emeka Ebilah, Henry Ikoh,
Jude Nwokoro and Emmanuel Bosah.
The judge had denied the request of Joe Gadzama, Mr Ogbulafor's
lawyer, who had made frantic efforts to get a stay of arraignment,
when he ruled that no such application was before him.
Mr. Bello said that though an application was filed, it had not been
brought before him and therefore, was not ripe for hearing. He
therefore said the commission can approach the court for a warrant of
arrest if it observed any attempt by the accused persons to abscond
before the date of arraignment.
According to him, since no preliminary investigations were underway in
any magistrate court, and investigations into the party chairman and
his colleagues had been completed, the accused persons must be present
on May 3rd, 2010, for plea taking.
The case against Ogbulafor
The party chairman is accused of using a dummy corporation, Henchriko
Nig. Ltd., to award himself a fictitious contract worth N82,631,03.41.
Similarly, he is said to have awarded himself a contract of
N11,519,906.25 through a proxy, Chris Abuajah, in the name of a
company called DHL Consultants.
The accused person were said to have committed these offences while
still holding public office, an offence punishable under the Corrupt
Practices and other Related offences Act.
The PDP chairman, through his legal team led by Mr Gadzama, had failed
to stop the court from hearing the case. The public prosecutor, Paul
Ahmed Bassi, who is the principal legal officer to the commission, had
insisted that his motion was ex-parte, one that did not allow the
other side to air its case, and got the leave of the court to press
charges against the party chairman.
Joy at the news
President of the Human Rights, Justice and Peace Foundation (HRJPF),
Chidi Nwosu, said he received the news of Mr. Ogbulafor's arraignment
with unspeakable joy.
In a letter to the anti-graft commission, dated 4th July, 2009, the
group had demanded the arrest of the party chairman. They had accused
Mr. Ogbulafor of, "corrupt practices, ranging from obtaining
gratification, embezzlement and corrupt enrichment," and were
disappointed when the commission failed to prosecute the PDP leader.
Mr. Ogbulafor has of recent been under attack by some members of the
party who have accused him of sundry offences. The tension in the
party heightened when the party's National Working Committee summoned
the leaders to a meeting which they refused to honour. At the end of
the committee meeting, Ken Nnamani and Adolphus Wabara, both former
presidents of the Senate were suspended along with Bello Masari,
former Speaker of the House of Representatives. Also suspended were
former Rivers State governor Peter Odili, former transport minister
Abiye Sekibo and a hoost of others.
The suspension of these people led to a severe division in the rank of
the party. The Acting President, Goodluck Jonathan was said to have
disagreed with the action of the leadership of the party when they
visited him at the weekend.
Former president Olusegun Obasanjo also reportedly opposed the
decision to suspend the party chieftains.
On Sunday, former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, who is eyeing
the presidency was also quoted to have said the action was harsh and
should be reversed. Although some governors were said to have
initially supported Mr. Ogbulafor, they have since withdrawn their
support allegedly because of threats that the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission will be unleashed on them.
-culled from 234.com
