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A Federal High
Court in Abuja yesterday discharged one out of the seven accused
persons standing trial for allegedly defrauding the pension office of
the Head of Service of the Federation of Nigeria of N12 billion.

Counsel to the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Godwin Obla, asked the
court to discharge the fifth accused person, Mohammed Katun Ahmed,
declaring that the commission was no longer interested in prosecuting
him. It was however gathered that the EFCC plans to use him as a
prosecution witness.

At yesterday’s
sitting, a 134-count charge against the persons for their alleged
involvement in the scam was read to them. They all pleaded not guilty
to all the charges.

The suspects are
Sani Teidi Shuaibu, former director, pension administration in the
Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation; Phina
Ukamaka Chidi, former deputy director (finance and accounts), and Aliyu
Bello, a personal assistant to Mr Shuaibu.

The other accused
persons are Garba Abdullahi Tahir, Mohammed Katun Ahmed, Emmanuel
Olanipekun, Abdullahi Omeiza, Computer Plaza, Essential Gadget
Ventures, Mobis Point Investment Ltd, Obista Enterprises, Shallow Well
Ventures, Mof Investment Ltd, Zumba Resources, Pam Investment and
Properties Ltd, Moshfad Enterprises, Newgate Projects Ltd, RedWings
Energy Ltd, RedWing Procurement Services Ltd, and Woodland Industries
Nigeria Ltd.

Others are Nwab
Tessy Enterprises Nig, Chris J. Junior Ventures, Uthaka Nigeria Ltd,
Bashinta Nigeria Ltd, Haleath Enterprises, Gozinda Enterprises, Omozua
Ventures, S.S. Badejo Entreprises, Lopee Ventures, Fafama Oil and Gas
Ltd, Fafama Estate Developer Ltd and Riba-Ile Petroleum Ltd.

Two of the
suspects, Mr Bello and Mr Omeiza, who were absent from court the last
time, on account of which the court ordered a bench warrant for their
arrest, were in court yesterday.

After their
arraignment, counsel to Sani Shuaibu, Sunday Ameh and Chris Uche, and
counsel to the other accused persons, both pleaded with the court to
grant their clients bail since the alleged offence was not a capital
offence, adding that they have been under administrative bail by the
court and have never jumped bail. The EFCC counsel did not oppose the
bail application.

The presiding
judge, Adamu Bello, granted bail to the accused persons in the sum of
N10 million and a surety in like sum. The surety must be resident in
Abuja and must possess landed property within the jurisdiction of the
court; the land title must be verified by the deputy chief registrar of
the court. Their international passports and that of the sureties are
also to be deposited in court and they are to report to the EFCC every
Monday of the week until investigation is over and that they should be
remanded in prison custody if they fail to meet the bail condition.

The accused are
under trail for using ghost pensioners to fraudulently pay N2 million
and N3 million into their accounts monthly, later diverting the sums by
awarding fictitious contracts to the above listed companies which they
managed. The agency found out that out of over 141,000 names on the
list of pensioners, only 90,000 were genuine, meaning that the 51,000
other names on the list were fake but were all receiving money from the
federal government, thus causing the bill to balloon to well over N3
billion.