The former Head of Service of the Federation, Stephen Oronsaye was on Monday arraigned before Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court in Abuja over his alleged complicity in money laundering and contract scam amount in to about N1.9 billion.
He was docked alongside his alleged accomplice, Osarenkhoe Afe and a company that was allegedly used to perpetuate the fraud, Frederick Hamilton and Global Services Limited.
The anti-graft agency said that it is still tracking the former Deputy Director of Finance in the office of the Head of Service, Abdulrasheed Maina,(now at large), who it said was also involved in fraud.
Oronsaye was alleged to have used some companies and diverted huge sums of money from the federal government coffers under the guise of using same to pay for biometric data capture project.
He was said to have claimed that some of the funds were meant for the procurement of computer accessories in a series of fraud
allegedly committed between March and May 2010 while he was still in charge as the head of service of the federation.
The EFCC in the charge marked FHC/CR/297/15, maintained that accused persons committed offences contrary and punishable under section 14 (1)(b) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2004.
EFCC also opposed a bail application made Oronsaye’s behalf by his counsel, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN).
Agabi argued that under the new Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, an accused person was entitled to bail and oral application.
But EFCC’s prosecutor, Aliyu Yussuf, argued that oral application for bail was not permitted in view of the provisions of section 162 of the ACJA.
He said bail could only be granted judicially and judiciously and based on materials in the form of affidavit evidence placed before the court.
Yussuf asked the court to remand the accused persons to prison and sought an adjournment till Wednesday to enable him to respond to the written bail applications filed by the defence.
The proceedings are ongoing as at the time of filing this report.
Further development later
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