A former Aviation Minister, Sen. Stella Oduah, and eight others have pleaded not guilty on Friday to a N5 billion fraud charge brought against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that the defendants were arraigned before Justice Inyang Ekwo of a Federal High Court in Abuja.
The charge accuses Oduah and the others of conspiracy, money laundering, and maintaining anonymous bank accounts with a commercial bank.
Oduah was arraigned on alleged N5 billion fraud and financial misappropriation while she served as Minister during the Goodluck Jonathan Administration.
The prosecution told the court that the defendants allegedly conspired to launder the sum of N5 billion between January and December 2014.
The court also directed the EFCC to transfer the case file to the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation to ensure diligent prosecution of the defendants.
The judge, Justice Ekwo djourned the case till October 17 for trial.
It should be noted that despite the charge being filed in 2020, the EFCC couldn’t arraign the defendants due to a petition they wrote to the former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN.
Malami had requested the court to suspend the trial for him to review the case file. However, he later granted the EFCC permission to proceed with the trial of the defendants.
