Ayodele Fayose pleaded not guilty as the Justice Mojisola Olatoregun-led Federal High Court in Lagos has, Monday, denied the immediate past governor of Ekiti state bail in an 11-count charge bordering on money laundering, abuse of public office, criminal breach of trust and stealing, up to the tune of N4.7bn preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Fayose who arrived the court this morning, around 8:30 am, was brought in by officials of the EFCC and was guided by heavy security.
Fayose has been in the detention of the EFCC for the past 5 days. When the charges were read to him, he pleaded not guilty.
His counsel, Kanu Agabi, filed a bail application on behalf of his client but the presiding judge, Mojisola Olatoregun rejected his bail application and ordered that Fayose should remain in EFCC custody till Wednesday. The case was adjourned to Wednesday.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission froze four Zenith Bank accounts used by Fayose to launder money for his Ekiti governorship election in 2014 in a lawsuit no. FHC/CS?871/2016 titled “Federal Republic of Nigeria Vs Zenith bank PLC account numbers 1003126654, 9013074033, 1010170969 and 1013835889.”
The judge Justice Mohammed Idris had granted the EFCC on June 24, 2016 an order freezing all the funds in the said accounts in Zenith Bank. Two accounts belong to Governor Ayo Fayose while the third belongs to his hotel Spotless Hotel in Ado Ekiti. The fourth account was operated by one of Fayose’s aides, Abiodun Agbele, who is under EFCC custody.
The EFCC had alleged that those accounts possessed funds, said to be about N4.7 billion (US$20mn)stolen from the office of the National Security Adviser, with most of the money secretly retained by Fayose for his personal use after the election.
On June 22, 2016, Fayose had claimed that Aisha Buhari, the wife of the Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari was the same person (who had claimed to be a daughter of General Muhammadu Buhari) indicted by a US Court for transferring $170,000 to indicted US Congressman, Williams Jefferson, in the William J. Jefferson corruption case involving Halliburton and that she was avoiding arrest by US authorities by failing to accompany her husband on his three presidential visits to the United States.
However, when Aisha Buhari travelled to Washington DC in August 4, 2016, Fayose subsequently claimed that her US visit did not invalidate the Haliburton judgement against her, saying “Has traveling to the US invalidated the judgment that said Aisha Buhari transferred $170,000 to Jefferson’s account? “Has traveling to the US erased the fact that Aisha Buhari transferred $170,000 to Williams Jefferson?
He will be facing the court again on Wednesday October 24th 2018 in Lagos.
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