The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Thursday arraigned a former governor of Kaduna State, Mukhtar Ramalan Yero; a former minister of state, Nuhu Somo Wya; a former People’s Democratic Party Chairman in the state, Abubakar Haruna Gaya, and a former secretary to the state government, Hamza Ishaq before a Federal High Court sitting in Kaduna.
They were arraigned before Justice S.M Shuaibu on a four-count charge bearing on criminal conspiracy, bribery, money laundering and criminal diversion of funds to the tune of N700million.
All the accused pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Lead prosecution counsel, Joshua Saidi, prayed the court for a date for the commencement of trial, while remanding the accused persons in prison custody.
Lead defence counsel, Yunus Ustaz Usman (SAN), made an oral application for bail, which Justice Shuaibu refused.
The court ruled that formal applications for bail of the accused must be filed.
The judge, therefore, adjourned the matter to June 6, 2018 for hearing of the bail application. He also ruled that the accused be remanded in prison custody.
The arraignment of the accused persons followed a petition alleging criminal diversion of $115million (equivalent to N23.299billion) missing funds some years ago by the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison Madueke. The missing sum was later traced to have be used to fund the bribing of officials across the 36 states of the federation for the 2015 presidential election through Fidelity Bank.
EFCC said investigations into the case had so far revealed that over N20billion was wired to some top PDP and INEC officials across the country, which was specifically disbursed through various branches of the Fidelity Bank with Kaduna State benefitting over N800 million only in two instalments of N700,000,000 and N190,000,000.
The sum was received and acknowledged by Nuhu Somo Wya, Abubakar Gaya Haruna and Hamza Ishaq on behalf of the state for onward sharing to the staff of the Independent National Eelectoral Commission staff spread across the 23 Local Government Areas of Kaduna State.
Count one of the charge reads: “That you, Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, (Whilst being the Executive Governor of Kaduna State ), Nuhu Somo Way, (Whilst being a former Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria), Ishaq Hamza (whilst being the Secretary to the Kaduna State Government) and Abubakar Gaya Haruna (Whilst being the Chairman PDP Kaduna State Chapter), sometime in 2015 in Kaduna within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court (Federal High Court), did conspire amongst yourselves to commit a crime to wit: indirectly taking possession of the of N700, 000, 000 (seven hundred million Naira), which you ought to have known forms part of unlawful activity to wit: bribery and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18(a)of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 (as amended) in 2012 and punishable under Section 15(3) of the Same Act.”
