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Court summons Dariye
Court summons Dariye
JOHN SHIKLAM, Kaduna
The Federal High Court in Kaduna
yesterday ordered that a criminal summons be issued to Plateau State governor
Chief Joshua Dariye for failing to appear in Court to answer charges of money
laundering levelled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Comminsion
(EFCC).
But in its reaction the state
government claimed that neither Dariye nor his counsel were served with any
notice on the suit.
The state Commissioner for
Information, Mr. Yakubu Datti who spoke in a telephone interview said, "it
was news to us that the EFCC has taken the governor to court".
Dariye and six officials of the
Allstates Trust Bank were dragged to the Federal High Court in Kaduna presided
over Justice Abdullahi Liman for alleged laundering of N1,161,162,900.00 in June
2001. In a two-count charge against the governor, the EFCC alleged that he (Dariye)
fraudulently presented a Central Bank cheque for the said amount in favour of
the state government to Allstates Trust Bank Plc, Wuse, Abuja, knowing it to be
unlawfully procured and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 3 (2) a
of the miscellanous offences Decree and punishable under section 3 (2) a of the
same decree as amended.
"That you Chief Joshua Chibi
Dariye being the governor of Plateau State of Nigeria on or about June 2001 in
Abuja dishonestly misappropriated the sum of N1,161,162,900.00 due to the
Plateau State government by directing the Allstates Trust Bank Plc Wuse, Abuja
to disburse in the following manner namely Pinnacle Communications Ltd
N250,000,000, Plateau State government N550,000,000, Union Homes N80,000,000,
PDP South -West N100,000,000, Ebenezer Retnan Ventures owned by Chief Dariye
N160,000", the charges read.
The bank officials namely, Awe
Odessa, Dorothy Uko, Duote P. Iyabi, Lawson A. Omokhodion, Allstates Trust Bank
Plc and Osirwemi Samuel were charged for conspiring among themselves to commit
an offence for accepting a Central Bank of Nigeria cheque for the sum of
N1,161,162,900.00 in favour of Plateau State governmnent from Chief Dariye
thereby committing an offence contrary to section 10 (6) of the miscellanous
offences Decree and punishable under section 3 (2) of the same Decree.
Lead counsel to the EFCC Chukwuma
Okoroma had earlier prayed the court to issue a bench warrant for the arrest of
Dariye for failure to appear in court.
In his ruling, Justice Liman
ordered that a criminal summons be issued against the governor.
"I hereby order that
criminal summons shall be issued against him (Chief Dariye) pending his
appearance to address me on his immunity. The summons shall be issued through
the Commissioner of Police, Plateau State," the Judge ruled.
The judge also rejected an oral
application for bail for the bank staff, five of who were in court, in spite of
prayers from their counsel Chief Alex Izinyon (SAN).
The judge stated however that he
could consider the granting of bail to the bank officials on the submission of
formal application.
He adjourned the case to December
13, saying that trial should be concluded by June 17, 2005.
In his reaction, Mr. Datti
maintained that there was no any notice to the governor on the case.
"You can not invite or serve
notice of a suit to an accused through the media. We only heard of it in the
news.
"They are not fair to Chief
Dariye. Why invite him to court on the media?
"I am telling you, we are in
touch with our lawyers who are well known in the law profession. Chief Rotimi
Williams and Chief Ben Nwabueze, a constitutional lawyer of repute" Mr.
Datti stated in the telephone interview.
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