N11.2m Fraud: AGF Ask ICPC To Hand- off Trial of Minister

In what looked like an an echo of Mike Aondoakaâ€s tenure in the same position, a curious letter from the office of Mohammed Adoke, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice stopped the trial of Minister of State for Health Alhaji Suleiman Bello for corruption by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) which was scheduled to begin at Federal High Court, Yola, Adamawa State today, PM NEWS can reveal.

Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN, Attoney General of the Federation.

The anti graft agency had dragged Suleiman to court over charges that he received a sum of N11.2 million from Governor Murtala Nyako as â€˜hardship allowanceâ€ when he was the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Adamawa State.Â ICPC had accused Bello of conferring corrupt advantage upon himself by unlawfully soliciting for the fund from Governor Nyako.

The anti graft agency said the Ministerâ€s behavior isÂ contrary to and punishable under Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000. PM NEWS learnt that the Minister was informed last Thursday that he will be arraigned in court on eight count charges based on the accusation today.

In a statement yesterday, Folu Olamiti, ResidentÂ Resident Media Consultant, ICPC had insisted that the trial will go on: “The Minister of State for Health Hon Sulaiman Bello and two former top government Officials of Adamawa State government will be arraigned on Monday (today) by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over their alleged involvement in a N268million bribe scamâ€.

He added that a former Secretary to Adamawa State Government, Mr. John Eddie Mannassa and Former Commissioner for Finance in the State, Mr. Emmanuel Vahyala will also be arraigned by the ICPC on corruption charges at the Court.Â The three accused, according to him, are however to be arraigned separately.

However, while the two other accused persons were arraigned and granted bail and the case against them adjourned till 1st of March, PM NEWS leant that the Minister was not in court as a result of the letter from the AGF office in which the ICPC was asked to hand off the matter.

The letter,Â a copy of which PM NEWS obtained from the office of the Minister was delivered to the office of the Chairman of ICPC at 6.20 pm last Friday.

In the letter signed by one Akin Akintewe, Assistant Director, Department of Public Prosecution, for Honourable Attorney General and Minister of Justice, with the title: Re: FRN VS SULEIMAN BELLO, Adokie asked the anti corruption agency to hand off the trial of the Minister and forward the case file to his office.

â€œI am directed to draw your attention to the above case which was instituted by your office and slated for hearing on the 31st January, 2011 at Federal High Court, Yolaâ€, the Ministry of Justice wrote on behalf of the AGF in the letter addressed to the Acting Chairman of ICPC.

â€œ I am further directed to request that the original case file be forwarded to the office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice immediately, to enable the office take over the prosecution of the case in exercise of the power of the HAGF under S,174(1)(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeriaâ€, he added in the letter.

No reason was however given in the letter for the demand that ICPC should hand off the case, even though the anti graft agency has successfully prosecuted cases on its own in the past.

It will be recalled that Mike Aondoakaa, the former Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of the Federal had provoked outrage locally and internationally with his attempts to also take over cases being prosecuted by the anti-graft agencies.

Many believe that Adokie is also set to put the anti-graft war in danger with his current moves.

â€”Oluokun Ayorinde/Abuja

Voter registration, a 100 billion naira hoax, says ACN

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has described the ongoing voter registration as a hoax of immense proportion,

considering that the INEC server lacks the capacity to detect double or multiple registration, contrary to the lies that

the nation has been fed with by the commission

”We can authoritatively inform all Nigerians that the DDC machines being used for the nationwide registration exercise can

only detect double/multiple registration if such registration is done at a particular machine.Â In other words, verification

is only at the machine level and not at the server level,” the party said in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday by its National

Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

”That means anyone who registers in five different centres, for example,Â can indeed vote in all those centres without being

detected. This is contrary to what Nigerians were told and it is a national calamity,” it said.

ACN therefore challenged the commission to disprove this claim by demonstrating to all stakeholders how it plans to detect

double or multiple registration, adding that failure to do this, the federal government must set up a panel of inquiry to investigate

how a whole country can be taken for a ride on an issue that is so critical to national survival.

The panel, it said, must find answers to the following posers: Who advised INEC to procure a system that cannot detect double/multiple

registration? Why did INEC lure Nigerians into a false sense of security that no one can get away with double/multiple registration?

What, if any, is the level of complicity of the PDP-led federal government in this national calamity? What guarantee can INEC, and

indeed President Goodluck Jonathan, now give that April’s general election will be free and fair?

In the meantime, ACN urged all opposition political parties, the Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reform (CODER) and all

genuine pro-democracy groups to meet urgently to find a way forward.

The party explained that because Nigeria lacks a national finger print system which INEC will have to tap into if it is to be able

to verify double/multiple registration at the server level, the commission will have a geometric problem in trying to detect double/multiple
registration at that level.

”It simply means thatÂ every timeÂ INEC wants to detect double/multiple registration, it will have to match each set of ten fingerprints

of a voter against sixty million sets of ten fingerprints (assuming 60 million people were registered), and the technology procured by INEC

simply does not have the capacity to do that. It took the British Police three whole years to establish a national finger print system, so it is not

what INEC can do in three weeks.

”We are therefore left with no option than to conclude that the much-ballyhooed, 100 billion naira voter registration exercise will not

produce a credible or accurate voters’ register. The voters’ register that will emerge will be packed full with fake names and riddled with

double/multiple registration. Needless to say, therefore, that the forthcoming general elections will neither be free, fair nor credible,” it said.

The ACN said to worsen matters, the information that the DDC machines cannot detect double/multiple registration at the server level has

apparently been leaked to the PDP, hence the propensity of the party to encourage and finance multiple registration across the nation during

the ongoing exercise.

”The puzzle over why a state government will spend about 100 million naira, at 50,000 per each of the 1,872 polling booths in the state, during

the registration exercise, which has been fully paid-for by the federal government, is now gradually been solved. Equally getting clearer is why

the same state government has been transporting people all over the state under the guise of facilitating the registration exercise,” the party said.

ACN recalled its numerous warnings that despite the much-vaunted integrity of INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega, he is simply hemmed in within the

commission by those who would not let him succeed, and that there is a limit to which one man can swim when he is swimming against the tide.

”We hate to say that our warnings haveÂ come to pass. We are saddened that the 2011 electionsÂ may not beÂ different from the charade that

the nation witnessed in the name of elections in 2003Â and 2007, even as huge tax payers’ funds have been expended in what is now turning out

to be the grandest deception of all time. If the whole process can still be salvaged, the time to act is NOW!” the party said.

N11.2m Fraud: AGF Ask ICPC To Hand- off Trial of Minister

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