In the
amended charge dated November 2, 2015, Oronsaye is being charged along with
Osarenkhoe Afe, Fedrick Hamilton Global Services Limited, Cluster Logistic
Limitd, Kangolo Dynamic Cleaning Limited, and Drew Investment &
Construction Company Limited.
Oronsaye
and Afe, who is the managing director of Fredrick Hamilton Global Services
Limited, were present in court. However, the other defendants were absent.
Prosecuting
counsel, Leke Atolagbe, while citing Section 478 of the Administration of
Criminal Justice Act, 2015, said, “We urge your lordship to enter a plea of not
guilty for the defendants who are not represented in court, in order that the
trial can proceed.”
Counsel to
Oronsaye, Joe Agbi, SAN, raised no objections to the application of the
prosecution, neither did Oluwole Aladedoye, counsel to Afe and Fedrick Hamilton
Global Services Limited.
The trial judge,
while acceding to the application of the prosecution, ruled that: “In the
absence of the fourth, fifth and sixth defendants, Section 478 of the
Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 shall be applied to each of them,
except if it is later shown that they were not served with the amended charges,
in the interest of justice.”
Count one
of the charges reads: “That you Stephen Oronsaye, Abdulrasheed Abdullahi Maina
(now at large) Osarenkhoe Afe and Fredrick Hamilton Global Services Limited on
or about 2nd July, 2010 in Abuja, collaborated in disguising genuine nature of
the sum of N161,472,000 derived from an illegal act to wit: conducting
procurement fraud by means of fraudulent and corrupt act on the contract
extension of biometric enrolment purportedly awarded to Innovative Solutions
Limited by the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation without
following due process and you thereby committed an offence punishable under
Section 14 (1) (b) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004.”
Another
count reads: “That you Stephen Oronsaye and Abdulrasheed Abdullahi Maina (now
at large) between April and May 2010 in Abuja, collaborated in disguising
genuine nature an aggregate sum of N131,038,425 derived from an illegal
act to wit; conducting procurement fraud by means of fraudulent and corrupt act
on the contract of biometric enrolment purportedly awarded to Moshfad
Enterprises by the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation without
following due process and you thereby committed an offence punishable under
Section 14 (1) (b) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004.”
They
pleaded “not guilty” to the charges as they were read to them.
Following
their plea, Atolagbe asked the court for a date for commencement of trial. He
also notified the court that the prosecution had 22 witnesses it intended to
present in court.
The
defence counsels expressed readiness for the commencement of the trial. They
further applied that Justice Kolawole allow their clients to continue with the
earlier bail granted them on July 21, 2015.
The
prosecution did not raise any objections to the oral application.
In view of
the fact that there was no objection to the application, the trial judge
acceded to the request and further adjourned to June 9, 2016 for “commencement
of judicial trial”.
It would
be recalled that Oronsaye first appeared before Justice Kolawole on July 13,
2015, where he was confronted with a 25-count charge, to which along with his
co-defendants they pleaded not guilty. The trial judge had fixed February 16,
2016 for them to enter their plea for the amended charges.
The case
file, was however, afterwards transferred to Justice J. T. Tsoho of a Federal
High Court, Abuja. Presiding over the case for the first time on February 16,
2016, he adjourned to March 1, 2016 for them to take their plea on the amended
charges. On the set day, however, rather than begin the proceedings, he simply
said: “It has been realized that the case came to me in error, and I’ve been
instructed that it should be returned to Justice Kolawole who started it; he
should continue where he stopped. I wish you the best of luck.”
Making
clarification on the return of the file to him, Justice Kolawole explained
that: “the Chief Judge wanted to redistribute cases to new judges transferred
to the Federal High Court, in order to decongest the court, but this case file
of Oronsaye was taken in error to Justice Tsoho. This explanation becomes
necessary so the public will not be wondering why such back and forth movement.”
No comments:
Post a Comment