•Court adjourns till June 18, 19 as defendants plead not guilty

By Steve Oko

UMUAHIA- The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Friday, arraigned a former Governor of Abia State, Senator Theodore Orji; his son and former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Chinedum Orji for alleged conspiracy and misappropriation of public funds running into billions of Naira.

They were arraigned together with a former Commissioner for Finance, Dr Philp Nto; a former Director of Finance, Government House, Mr Romanus Madu; and a contractor in the state, King Obioma.

The charge sheet marked HU/69c/2024 filed on October 8, 2024 came up for hearing at the Court 1 of the Abia State High Court.

Kemi Pinheiro, SAN; and Rotimi Oyedopo, led EFCC team of 11 lawyers according to the charge sheet.
Meanwhile, when the trial Judge and Chief Judge of Abia State, Honourable Justice Lilian Abai, read the 16 counts of charge against the defendants, they all pleaded not guilty.

The counts of charge included alleged misappropriation of “N22.5 billion allocated as security votes to Abia State from 2011 to 2015”; as well as another “N2 billion being proceeds of the Central Bank of Nigeria Funds for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) allocated to Abia State”.

They were equally accused of “stealing N12 billion being the funds due to Abia State from the Paris Club Refund”; as well as “stealing N13 billion being the proceeds of the loan facility granted by the then Diamond Bank Plc to the Abia State Government”.

Meanwhile, the trial Judge, granted bail to all the defendants in the sum of N50 million.
The matter was adjourned till June 18 and 19 for EFCC to open its case against the defendants.

Later in an interview with Vanguard, one of the lawyers of the defendants, Daniel Anya, said the counts of charge against his clients were “very bogus.”

He, however, commended the court for granting bail to the defendants who he said, “ are respected citizens and elder statesmen”.

The Counsel said the defendants deserved to be granted bail “because our extant laws provide that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven otherwise by the court of competent jurisdiction”.

The defendants’ Counsel further said the onus was on the EFCC to prove its “superfluous charge” against his clients, adding that “he that alleges must prove”.