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Court discharges Oronsaye in alleged N190m fraud trial

By Ameh Ochojila, Abuja
06 June 2023   |   4:01 am
Former Head of Service of the Federation (HoSF), Steve Oronsaye, has again been discharged and acquitted of the N190 million corruption charges brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Steve Oronsaye

Former Head of Service of the Federation (HoSF), Steve Oronsaye, has again been discharged and acquitted of the N190 million corruption charges brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, yesterday, exonerated Oronsaye for want of merit.

The judge, in his ruling, held that the anti-graft agency failed to provide enough evidence to warrant the ex-HoSF’s conviction.

Oronsaye was arraigned alongside Managing Director of Fedrick Hamilton Global Services Limited, Osarenkhoe Afe, on a 49-count charge.

But the charges were later amended and reduced to 22 counts after EFCC separated the parts involving a former head of the Presidential Pension Task Force, Abdulrasheed Maina, who was then at large.

Maina was later charged separately by the commission, and subsequently convicted and sentenced to eight years imprisonment in November 2021.

Three companies – Cluster Logistic Limited, Kangolo Dynamic Cleaning Limited and Drew Investment & Construction Company Limited were also joined in the charge preferred against Oronsaye by the EFCC.

The plaintiff alleged that the defendants had, between 2010 and 2011, used the firms to divert public funds through procurement fraud.

It equally accused Orosanye and the others of using inflated biometrics enrolment contracts, collective allowances and other schemes to siphon money from accounts containing pensioners’ funds.

In the findings of the court, Justice Ekwo held that the anti-graft agency failed woefully to supply ingredients that could establish the alleged corruption charges against Oronsaye.

The judge, subsequently, dismissed the charges in relation to Oronsaye, discharged and acquitted him.

Justice Olasumbo Goodluck of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, now elevated to Court of Appeal, had dismissed similar fraud charges against Oronsaye, discharged and acquitted him on the ground that the claims were frivolous and lacked merit that can lead to conviction of the defendant.

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