Justice Abubakar Umar of an Abuja High Court has struck out a suit filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes commission (EFCC) against three persons named in the Halliburton bribery scandal. The judge struck out the case for EFCC’s failure to arraign the defendants since the trial commenced over a year ago.
The Judge struck out the suit after counsel to the EFCC, Ms Kauna Pindam, prayed the court to grant the commission another adjournment to enable it to arraign the accused persons.
The EFCC is charging a former Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Head of Service, Alhaji Ibrahim Aliyu, retired AVM Abdullahi Bello and Mohammed Bakari of the Urban Shelter Ltd., on a nine-count charge of corruption and bribery. The trio are alleged to have used their companies, Intercellular Nigeria Ltd., Sherwood Petroleum Ltd and Tri-Star Investment Ltd. to benefit from a $7.5 million Halliburton bribe.
Justice Umar refused to grant the adjournment but reminded the EFCC of an order he gave on January 23 that the commission should be ready to arraign the three suspects named in the $180 million Halliburton bribery scandal unfailingly today.
“I will not grant any more adjournment. Remember I gave an order on January 23 that March 26 date would be the last time the court would give the EFCC chance to arraign the suspects.
Recalling that he granted the leave to prosecute the trio, over a year ago, the Judge stated that the EFCC has since failed to arraign the defendants. “I have checked my records and in the past one year, since February 17, 2011 when I granted leave to the prosecution to arraign the accused; they have not done so.”
“It has been over a year now and still the EFCC is coming up with excuses; the EFCC should know that if it is not ready to prosecute and bring cases to conclusion, it should not apply for leave of court to arraign anybody” he stated.
“The EFCC should know that I am answerable to the National Judicial Council and what will I say is the reason why this case has been at arraignment stage for the past one year” he asked.
The Judge, who had earlier warned that he will report the anti-graft agency to the Minister of Justice for its delaying tactics, noted that “I warned the EFCC that upon its failure to arraign the accused today, I will strike out the case and write to the Minister of Justice to lodge a complaint about the attitude of the commission.”
“I remember I also warned the EFCC and the accused counsel to adhere to the specific details of the order or suffer certain penalties for not following the instructions” he said.
Justice Umar then urged the EFCC not to expose the judiciary to ridicule.
The anti-graft agency is yet to sustain any ruling on the Halliburton bribery scandal which occurred over a decade ago, whilst it counterpart in the US, recently got a conviction for the company’s former boss, who was in charge during the bribery era.
A number of Halliburton’s senior staff has also been imprisoned in the US for bribing Nigerian government officials to get contracts in the nation’s liquefied natural gas establishment.
