N5.3bn Fraud: Judge Orders Chimaroke Nnamani’s Arrest
A judge, Chuka Obiozor
of a Lagos Division of the Federal High Court on Monday issued a bench warrant
for the arrest of Chimaroke Nnamani, a former governor of Enugu State.
Mr. Nnamani, who was
governor between 1999 and 2007, is facing a 10-count charge of laundering N5.3
billion instituted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The judge also ordered
the arrest of Mr. Nnamani’s aide and co-accused, Sunday Anyaogu.
“There is no evidence
shown to the court as to why the defendants are absent, there is no justification
for the continued absence of the defendants,” said the judge.
“In the absence of any
convincing evidence, it is hereby ordered that a bench warrant be issued
against the defendants and summons to their sureties to show cause.”
Mr. Obiozor adjourned
till December 14th for the re-arraignment of the defendants.
Both defendants were
first arraigned in 2007 alongside their companies: Rainbownet (Nig) Ltd; Hillgate
(Nig) Ltd; Cosmo FM; Capital City Automobile (Nig) Ltd; Renaissance University
Teaching Hospital; and Mea Mater Elizabeth High School.
In 2015, all the
companies pleaded guilty to the charges but the trial of Messrs Nnamani and
Anyaogu continued to stall due to the former’s frequent travels abroad to treat
an heart ailment.
On Monday, Mr.
Obiozor, the fourth judge to handle the matter, made it clear to the defence
lawyer that he would not tolerate any attempt to further delay the trial.
“It is not a case of
more haste, less speed,” the visibly angry judge began.
“The defendant may not
be guilty but the matter must be heard in court. After ten years, we are still
talking about arraignment and re-arraignment and tomorrow we’ll see the
headline that the judiciary is to be blamed.”
Earlier, Shamsudeen
Abubakar, counsel to Mr. Nnamani told the court that his client, who is
“severely sick,” had just had a heart surgery in the United States and is still
recuperating in hospital.
“We received the
hearing notice to appear before you in respect of this matter just last
Thursday,” Mr. Abubakar, a lawyer from Ricky Tarfa Chambers, informed the
judge.
“Unfortunately, the
first defendant (Mr. Nnamani) is bedridden in a hospital in America. When this
matter came up on 30th November, we tried to reach out to the family.
“I was reliably
informed that the defendant had a heart surgery and we wanted to get a medical
report but unfortunately we could not.”
Mr. Abubakar noted
that his client had regularly attended his trial and that his absence was not a
deliberate act.
Asked by the judge why
Mr. Nnamani stopped attending trial since 2015 when “his surgery was only last
month”, the defence lawyer said it was the period the companies pleaded guilty
to the charges.
“The first and second
defendants are appearing in this case on their personal capacities and have
nothing to do with the companies’ guilty plea,” the judge said.
“I’m not for or
against anybody. You tried to reach the family of the first defendant and could
not but you were aware he went to surgery.”
Kelvin Uzozie, counsel
to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, informed the court that the
photographic evidence by the defence lawyer to prove Mr. Nnamani’s recuperation
in a US hospital had been in circulation since 2014.
“I don’t need to tell
the defence lawyer what to do, the (defendants’) sureties are supposed to be
here to show cause as to why the defendants are not here.”
N5.3bn Fraud: Judge Orders Chimaroke Nnamani’s Arrest
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Monday, December 04, 2017
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