Justice Salisu Garba of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Maitama, Abuja, has adjourned till December 15, taking of pleas in the 229 amended charges filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against the suspended chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr. Ransome Owan and six commissioners of the agency.
The commissioners are Mallam Abdurahman Ado, Professor Onwuamaeze Iloeje, Dr. Abdurazaq Alimi, Mr. Mohammed Bunu, Mr. Abimbola Odubiyi and Dr. Grace Eyoma.
Counsel to the EFCC, Godwin Obla, said the amended charges were as a result of fresh evidence available to the commission.
But when the matter came up on Thursday, counsel to the fourth accused person, Mr. O. Owa, argued that his client could not take his plea because he was only served the amended charges that morning.
“We were served the amended charge this morning, and when there is a dispute as to issue of service, it cannot be resolved by conflicting words of counsel, it must be resolved by production of proof of service,” Owa told the court.
After listening to the submission of both the prosecuting and defence counsels on the matter, Justice Garba adjourned the case to December 15, to enable the 5th accused person study the amended charge before taking his plea.
Dr. Owan and the six commissioners were first arraigned by the EFCC on April 22, 2009, before the FCT High Court, Abuja, on a 196-count charge. The accused persons are alleged to have committed an offence contrary to sections 97, 315,122, 309, 123, 289 of the Criminal Procedure Code, all bordering on criminal conspiracy, dishonest conversion of public funds, criminal appropriation, theft and disobedience to law.
They were said to have allegedly converted billions of naira belonging to NERC for personal use.
The accused persons were later granted bail in the sum of N100 million each, two sureties for each of the accused persons with like sum; the two sureties must be prominent Nigerians with properties in either Maitama, Garki, Asokoro or Wuse, all in Abuja.
The accused persons were also barred from travelling and are to report to the EFCC head office first and last Mondays of every month.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Friday, preferred a fresh 130-count charge against a member of the House of Representatives, Honourable Godwin Elumelu; a Senator, Nicholas Ugbane and seven others at the FCT High Court, Abuja, for defrauding the government to the tune of over N5.2 billion in the Rural Electrification Agency project.
The nine accused persons have also been separated in the fresh charges.
The three lawmakers are jointly facing a 62-count charge, while the other six accused are jointly facing a 68-count charge.
The three lawmakers are: Mr. Godwin Elumelu, House of Representatives committee Chairman on Power, Mr. Nicholas Yahaya Ugbane, Senate Committee Chairman on Power and Mr. Jibo Mohammed.
The other accused are Mr. Samuel Ibi Gekpe, Mr. Abdullahi Aliyu, Simon Kirdi Nanle, Mr. Lawrence Kayode Orekoya, Abdulsamad Garba Jahun and Mr. Kayode Oyedeji.
Count three and four, being charges against the lawmakers, state that while the duo of Ugbane and Elumelu were serving as the committee chairmen on Power in the Senate and the House respectively in 2008, alongside Mr. Jibo Mohammed, who is Elumelu’s deputy, they conspired among themselves to the commission of offences, to wit: criminal breach of trust by public servants in the purported award of Grid Extension and Solar Electrification contracts from the Amended Budget 2008 of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), and, thereby, committed an offence punishable under section 97(1) of the penal Code Act Cap 532 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, Abuja, 1990.
In one of the charges preferred against the other six of the nine accused persons, Mr. Samuel Ibi Gekpe, Mr. Abdullahi Aliyu, Simon Kirdi Nanle, Mr. Lawrence Kayode Orekoya, Abdulsamad Garba Jahun and Mr Kayode Oyedeji, all senior officials of Rural Electrification Agency, they were alleged to have, some time, in December 2008.