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I am innocent, Belgore tells court

By Joseph Onyekwere
13 April 2019   |   3:31 am
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Dele Belgore, who is standing trial before the Federal High Court Lagos over alleged N450 million fraud charge, yesterday told the court that he was innocent but being prosecuted wrongly.

[FILE] Mr. Dele Belgore and Former Minister of National Planning, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Dele Belgore, who is standing trial before the Federal High Court Lagos over alleged N450 million fraud charge, yesterday told the court that he was innocent but being prosecuted wrongly.He said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) knew culprits of the offence pressed against him, but freed them and filed charges against him who did not benefit from the N450 million, which is the subject of the charge.

Belgore and a former Minister of Planning, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, are currently standing trial before the court on a 9-count charge bordering on the alleged offence.At the resumed proceedings, yesterday, Belgore who was the campaign coordinator of the re-election bid of former President Goodluck Jonathan in Kwara State concluded his testimony in defence of the allegation.

In his testimony while being led in evidence by his counsel, Ebun Shofunde (SAN), the defendant denied all the nine-count charge preferred against him.

Belgore told Justice Rilwan Aikawa that in the statement he made at the EFCC, he gave detailed information to the Commission about who took possession, disbursed and used the N450 million.According to him, while he was being investigated by the EFCC on the alleged offence, he gave account of the role he played and neither did he admit orally to have committed the offences nor made any statement to admit that he was guilty of the offences.

“I denied all the nine-count charge against me. I have never made any payment to all the names mentioned in the charge. In order to assist the investigators, I gave them detailed information on who took possession of the fund and how it was disbursed and used. I didn’t benefit from the funds,” he told the court.

Belgore had earlier told the court that the N450 million which was set aside as campaign fund for Jonathan’s re-election bid was from series of fund raising activities done by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).He also denied claims that the money was from a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.

Belgore said throughout his tenure as Jonathan’s campaign coordinator in Kwara State, he had no dealings with Diezani, adding that he was not aware that the N450 million he signed for in 2015 came from her.He added that claims by two EFCC investigators that the money was part of the N23 billion allegedly collected by Diezani from three oil marketers — Northern Belt Ltd, Actus Integrated Ltd, Midwestern Company and one, Mr. Leno Laitan — ahead of the 2015 general elections, were untrue.

After completion of Belgore’s testimony, the second defendant counsel, I.J Okechukwu, declared his intention to cross-examine Belgore but prayed the court to grant him adjournment to enable him to review the first defendant’s testimony before the court.

Consequently, Justice Rilwan Aikawa granted his prayer and adjourned trial till May 6. Meanwhile, the court has granted leave to the second defendant to travel to Mecca for lesser Hajj.In granting him the leave, the court ordered him to provide a surety who must be a civil servant residing in Lagos or landed property owner in the state.

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