 Mr Adeyanju Bodunde
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$180m Halliburton Bribe: Former President's Aide Knows Fate on Feb. 6
Chukwumerije Aja, Abuja
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, Nigeria, has set February 6, 2012 to decide whether it has jurisdiction to try Mr Adeyanju Bodunde, an aide to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is allegedly implicated in the $180 million Halliburton bribery scandal.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, brought a fresh 6-count criminal charge against Bodunde, praying the Court to strike out the previous charge it filed against the accused person over the matter and proceed with taking his plea on the amended criminal charge.
The EFCC claimed that it had uncovered more incriminating proof of evidence that established the involvement of Bodunde in the $180 million Halliburton bribery scandal.
Defence objects
However, the lawyer to the accused person, Mr Oluwole Aladeloye, who objected to attempts by the anti-graft agency to try his client, maintained his brief of argument challenging the jurisdiction of the court and the competency of the new charge against his client.
Lawyer to the accused also said that the new charge was incurably defective because all the amendments made by the EFCC were brought in under the Money Laundering Act (amendment 2000), which he said was not in existence in Nigeria's statutes.
Consequently, he asked the EFCC to produce the gazette containing the said enactment, if it so exists as contended by the EFCC argument. Besides, he argued that several counts in the charge brought forward were materially and particularly identical and repetitive.
Prosecution contends 6-count charge valid
The EFCC's lawyer, Godwin Obla, asked the court to discountenance Bodunde’s objection saying the argument by the accused that the law under which he was standing trial was not in existence should not hold water.
Obla argued: "The Money Laundering Act (amendment 2000) was duly enacted by the National Assembly and has not been repealed. It is not the duty of the prosecutor to lead him to where to find it."
Besides, all the count charges were founded on specific individual transactions confessed to by the accused person, which cannot at this juncture be denied. “Accused cannot probate and approbate.” Obla therefore urged the court to dismiss Bodunde’s application and order him to take his plea to the new 6-count charge.
Judge rules on Feb. 6
Presiding Judge, Justice Adamu Bello, adjourned ruling on Bodunde’s preliminary objection till February 6 2012.
The EFCC had on October 13, 2010, slammed a 5-count criminal charge against Bodunde, to which he pleaded "not guilty". He was subsequently admitted on bail in the sum of N1 million, with a surety in like sum.
Edited: Hajia Sani |
