I Have Not Been Served Any Fresh Charge – Former Aviation Minister, Oduah

Mrs Stella Oduah, the former Minister of Aviation, has explained that she is not aware of any fresh criminal charge against her by the Police in the name of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Vanguard reports.

Oduah made the assertion on Tuesday in Abuja through her lawyer, Mr James Onoja, SAN while addressing newsmen.

The former minister said that apart from not being served with the charge, she had never been subjected to any kind of investigation by the Nigeria Police Force.

According to her lawyer, my client has not been invited to make any statement by any agency of government before the spurious charges were made by one Ochogwu Ogbe and Ibrahim Mohammed, who claim to be lawyers with the police.

The senior lawyer said that the charge had no proof of evidence bearing Oduah’s statement as required by law and no single witness from the National Youth Service Corps, (NYSC) was listed.

Onoja also claimed that the two police lawyers responsible for filing of the charges did so without affixing their seal of practice.

He added that the address where the purported charge emanated from indicated EFCC’s office at No. 1, Court Road, Benin City in Edo.

The senior lawyer claimed that it could not yet be ascertained whether the police or the EFCC was behind the charge.

He said that his team visited the EFCC headquarters to investigate the faceless charge and the EFCC denied knowledge of the charge.

“The spurious allegations against our client of not participating in NYSC has been dismissed by the Supreme Court in her favour.

“The fresh charge against my client is a violation of the Code of Conduct for prosecutors as issued by the Federal Ministry of Justice and punishable under Article 7, part B of the Code,” he said.

He thanked Justice James Omotosho for questioning the lawyer that issued the charge and to appear for prosecution.

He said that the action of the judge was a confirmation that the court was not comfortable with all anomalies contained on the face of the charge.

He said that he would petition the Inspector-General of Police for investigation and to call to order those bringing the image of the police to disrepute.

“We will also petition the EFCC to investigate impersonation and abuse of its prosecutorial powers.

“This is a new political dispensation which has promised adherence to rule of law and accountability, we need a breath of fresh air,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) reports that a mild drama ensued at the Federal High Court, Abuja on Tuesday where a judge of the court, Justice James Omotosho handed a police lawyer, Mr Ibrahim Mohammed to EFCC with regards to the case.

The police lawyer is to be investigated for filing an eight-count criminal charge against Oduah in the name of the EFCC without the authority of the anti-graft agency.

The lawyer told the court that he left the EFCC in November 2022 and admitted to some errors in filing the charge with the name of the anti-graft agency.

The court nonetheless ordered that the authenticity of his errors must be established through investigation.