Justice A. B. Mohammed of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT High Court, Jabi, has adjourned the arraignment of Usman Mohammed, for a N14 million fraud to October 22, 2018.
Mohammed, a Special Assistant to a former Minister of the FCT, Bala Mohammed, is being charged along Maryam Umar on a nine-count charge, and were expected to be arraigned on July 2, 2018. The EFCC is prosecuting Bala on a different set of charges.
They are alleged to have sometime in 2011 “conspired among themselves to carry out criminal act by obtaining money by false pretence”, after they obtained N7 million from one Ranti Anifowose “being part of the amount realized from the sale of Plot 13 CO4 Cadastral Zone Dape District, Abuja, belonging to S & M Essential Unit and Company”. It’s an offence punishable under Section 8 (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act 2006.
At the proceedings, Blessing Anazodo and Idris Abubakar, counsel for Usman and Umar, respectively, notified the court that they got the charges on a “short notice”, and needed time to study it in order to effectively prepare for the case.
“Our clients were served very late on Friday, June 29, 2018 and we had to work tirelessly to come up with a response over the weekend despite the fact that the charges were filed in this court over a month ago,” Abubakar said.
Prosecuting counsel, Mary Onoja, however, argued that such was not enough reason to stop the defendants from taking their plea.
“Section 396 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act states that objection to a charge can only be raised after the plea has been taken,” Onoja said.
Abubakar, thereafter, sought for the bail of the defendants, but the trial judge, advised that both parties pick a date, in which the court will “attend to the bail application”.
“That way there is enough notice for all the parties to prepare for the case,” the trial judge held.
Meanwhile, they are to continue benefiting from the administrative bail granted them by the EFCC.