EFCC Denies Dropping Criminal Charges Against Diezani, Others

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has denied media reports that it had dropped the criminal charges preferred against the former petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke and other persons indicted for money laundering.

Some newspapers had on Tuesday reported that the EFCC had dropped the charges against the ex-minister of petroleum and four others.

The EFCC said reports circulating in the social media are false and misleading, adding that at no time did the anti-graft agency withdraw the charge, which is still before Justice Muslim Hassan of the Federal High Court, Lagos.

The commission made the rebuttal in a statement issued on Wednesday by its media and publicity unit.

According to the statement, the only development was that the commission took a prosecutorial decision to split the initial 14-count charge to enable separate arraignment of the defendants following a spate of adjournments that prevented the arraignment of the defendants more than one year after the case was listed.

Part of the statement read: “The charges were first filed on November 28, 2018. Since then, every attempt to arraign the defendants had been frustrated by one excuse or the other. In more than four times that the matter was called for arraignment, it was either that Lanre Adesanya was sick and bedridden in a London Hospital or Nnamdi Okonkwo was hypertensive and on admission in a hospital or Stanley Lawson had had a domestic accident and could not appear in court.

“It was clear that these recurring excuses were ploys to frustrate the arraignment. To get around this, the commission took a deliberate decision, which was disclosed in open court, to separately prosecute the defendants in different courts.

“This explains why the four count amended charge brought against Dauda Lawal, a former executive director of First Bank, did not include other defendants, except the two who are at large( Diezani Alison-Madueke and Ben Otti). And the ingredients of the offence stated therein only pertains to Lawal’s involvement in the alleged crime, which is the receipt of $25million

“From the $153million 2015 Peoples Democratic Party presidential election slush fund,” it added.

The EFCC also said the non-inclusion of other defendants in the original charge in the amended four count charge does not mean that they have been exonerated by the commission of any criminal allegation.