SAN FRANCISCO, December 07, (THEWILL) – The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned the former governor of Kebbi State, Usman Saidu Dakingari, alongside two others before Honourable Justice Basse Onu of the Federal High Court sitting in Kebbi.
They were arraigned on a 13 count charge of Conspiracy and Money Laundering to the tune N450,000,000 (Four Hundred and Fifty Million Naira) only.
Dakingari was arraigned along with Sunday Dogonyaro and Garba Rabiu Kamba for allegedly conniving to collect the sum of N450 million (Four Hundred and Fifty Million Naira) being part of the $115,000,000 (One Hundred and Fifteen Million Dollars) warehoused in Fidelity Bank and shared by the a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Deizani Alison-Madueke for the purpose of influencing the 2015 general election.
One of the charges reads that: “Usman Saidu Dakingari on or about the 27th March 2015 at Kebbi within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court made a cash payment of the sum of N49,640,000 (Forty Nine Million, Six Hundred and Forty Thousand Naira) only to Alhaji Haruna Haruna without transacting through a financial institution and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 18 (a) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011 (as amended) and punishable under section 16 (2)(b) of the same Act”.
The defendants pleaded not guilty when the charge was read to them.
Counsel for the prosecution Jonson Ojogbane requested a date for trial in view of the plea of the defendants but counsels representing the defendents moved applications for bail on behalf of their clients and respectively urged the court to admits them to bail.
Ojogbane opposed the bail applications with counter affidavits urging the court to refuse the application of the 1st and 2nd defendants but did not oppose the bail application of the 3rd defendant who he said has been constantly reporting to court since the first time the case came up of arraignment.
The first and second defendants on the other hand had initially refused to appear before the court even after the court threatened to issue a bench warrant for their arrest.
After listening to the arguments exchanged between the parties, Justice Onu adjourned the matter to December 10th , 2018 for ruling on bail application.
The defendants were ordered to be remanded in EFCC custody pending the outcome of the ruling on bail application.
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