The Federal Government has filed fresh charges against a former Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke.
Adoke was arraigned on Monday before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
He is being charged along with his co-defendant, Aliyu Abubakar, on six counts bordering on money laundering and criminal diversion of funds in the Malabo oil deal.
They were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
This comes four days after Adoke’s lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome, accused the anti-graft agency of holding his client in custody after he had been granted bail.
The former AGF was first arraigned over his alleged involvement in the Malabu oil scandal before the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court upon his return to the country from Dubai.
He was later granted bail while Ozekhome said they had met the conditions imposed by the court since January.
The senior lawyer accused the EFCC of holding Adoke “in permanent custody,” adding “This has further jeopardised his very poor and fragile health.”
“From the foregoing, it is crystal clear to any discerning observer that our client is no more being prosecuted, but is being persecuted, by the EFCC, which has, by this singular act, now constituted itself into an institution that acts above courts of law,” Ozekhome alleged in a statement issued on Thursday last week.
