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| EFCC |
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| Ayodele Fayose |
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| Innoson Motors CEO |
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, have arrested a serving Director General of the National Biotechnology Development Agency, NABDA, Professor( Mrs) Lucy Jumeyi Ogbadu, for her alleged involvement in criminal conspiracy and diversion of public funds to the tune of N23million.
Ogbadu was arrested on Wednesday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, following her alleged linkage with the Bayelsa State's Director of Bioresources Development Centre, Mr. Josiah Habu who is being investigated by the EFCC in a case of fraudulent diversion of the sum of N75,0000,000.00k( Seventy Five Million Naira only).
Investigations by the EFCC showed that Ogbadu allegedly received the sum of N23million through a bank account belonging to the wife of Habu, Mrs. Esther Habu and admitted same in a voluntary statement made to the EFCC.
Further investigations have also shown that, Mrs Esther Habu is one of the contractors with Bioresources Development Centre, Odi, Bayelsa State and a total sum of N603,000,000.00k( Six Hundred and Three Million Naira only) has been traced to her, in different deals involving over 20 Directors of Bioresources Development Centres across the country.
Ogbadu's linkage with all these scams is being investigated. She has been duly served with bail conditions while investigations continue.
Looks like the game is not over for a former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori, who still has 170 charges against him pending before a Federal High Court.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is said to have opened his corruption file and set to arraign him on charges of "massive looting! of Delta State, running into Billions.
Ibori arrived Nigeria through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
According to eyewitnesses, the former governor came into Abuja using a British Airways flight that touched down at the airport around 5.30am.
Family members and well-wishers were at the NAIA to receive the former governor.
He travelled to Oghara, his hometown, through the Benin airport while his family, friends and associates waited in vain for him at the Osubi airport, near Effurun in Delta State, where he was expected to land directly from Abuja.
A source, who confided in Punch, said the former governor would still answer questions from the EFCC and that the commission would soon invite him.
Following his conviction in the United Kingdom, there were criticisms against the Nigerian justice system, especially an Asaba High Court which had struck out 170 charges which the EFCC had brought against Ibori.
However, the EFCC took the matter to the Appeal Court where a three-man panel of justices on May 15, 2014, at the Benin Division of the Court of Appeal, ruled that the ex-governor, who is currently serving a 13-year jail term in a London prison, has a case to answer.
The Appellate Court panel led by Justice Ibrahim Saulawa ordered that the case be reassigned to another judge of the Federal High Court for continuation of trial.
The EFCC subsequently said in a statement in 2014 that the ex-governor would be rearrested upon the completion of his UK prison sentence.
It was also gathered that Ibori was told that he could be summoned to appear at the DSS office at anytime for further interrogation.
PDP not excited about Ibori’s return Meanwhile, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party was said to be weary of associating with the former governor.
A highly placed member of the party, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it would be wrong for them to start celebrating Ibori, a man who went to prison for stealing public money.
A governorship aspirant on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in Delta State, Sir Tony Chuks Obuh, has debunked allegations that he was quizzed by officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in Abuja over alleged sums of money found in his account.
Obuh said that the allegation was unfounded adding that he was had never been invited by the EFCC to explain any financial transaction.
The front-line governorship aspirants said he had been as free as air pointing out that he was busy planning the formal declaration of his aspiration to be governor in 2015.
Said Obuh: “Ï was not invited by the EFCC either by letter or by phone call, to respond to anything or to account for anything. As you can see, I am working freely on the streets of Nigeria and particularly Delta State. I came from Delta State on Sunday and I participated in the ward congress held last Saturday. I had no invitation, not even a phone call from any organisation or EFCC, to respond to anything. So, I was never arrested, detained or queried by any organisation”.
According to Obuh, the allegations that he had been invited and detained by the EFCC, were ”some of those stories coming from the pit of hell and created by those who have decided to abandon the issues, in terms of political contest, to blackmail or run others down.”
On how he would tackle the issue of graft, the aspirant said there was need for collaboration of all stakeholders, adding however, that he was out for lasting legacies.
” For me as a person, I have been in the civil service for 32 years. I have not heard of any invitation from anybody, both within or from the EFCC to answer or respond to any enquiry as to corrupt practices in all the ministries I have worked. If I have been able to keep a clean bill, rising to the position of Permanent Secretary, a position that I will continue to cherish all the days of my life, I do not think that I will now go out, in the terminal days of my life, to do something that will give me sad memories. At 57, I am closer to where I am going to. What I am looking for now is something that can leave my name as a legacy, both for my family and to the people of the state. I am not going to do anything to soil that image,” he added
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