A former Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Sunday Ehindero and a Commissioner of Police in charge of Finance and Budget and the Force headquarters, John Obaniyi, were on Tuesday discharged of a N16.4 million fraud charge preferred against them.
Justice Sylvanus Oriji of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting at Apo, Abuja discharged Ehindero and Obaniyi of the charges preferred against them by the Independent and Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
The former police boss and Obaniyi were re-arraigned on May 10, 2018 by ICPC on an amended 10-count charge bordering on fraud, giving false statement and conspiracy.
They were accused by ICPC of misusing the sum of N557,995,065 donated by the Bayelsa Government to the Nigerian Police Force to purchase arms and ammunition, which they were alleged to have diverted into separate accounts belonging to them.
The anti-corruption commission alleged that the defendants conspired and used their positions to place N500 million being part of N557,995,065 donated by the Bayelsa State government in two fixed deposit accounts.
The N500 million placed in fixed deposits, according to ICPC, yielded N16,412,315.06 interest, which they were accused of allegedly used for personal purposes.
The alleged offence contravened the provisions of Sections 26(1) and 22(5) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.
Both Ehindero and Obaniyi pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Both defendants had filed a no-case submission through their counsel, Dr Alex Izinyon SAN and Samuel Odariko respectively.
This followed the closure of the prosecution’s case on May 8 after calling three witnesses to testify for it.
Ruling on the no-case submission today, Justice Oriji held that the prosecution had not established a prima facie case against both Ehindero and Obaniyi to warrant the court to call upon them to enter their defence in the alleged fraud case.
He further held that the prosecution failed to prove that the defendants converted the said N16,412,315.06 interest generated on the N500 million to their personal use.
The judge, therefore, discharged the former IGP Ehindero and Obaniyi.
Source: https://tribuneonlineng.com/alleged-n16-4m-fraud-court-discharges-ex-igp-ehindero-cp-obaniyi/
