EFCC fails to present Ayodele Oke and his wife in court amid fears they may have fled Nigeria

ECONOMIC and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) officials have delayed plans to arraign the former director-general of the National Intelligence Agency Ambassador Ayodele Oke and his wife Folashade in court amid fears they may have fled Nigeria.

Last year, President Muhammadu Buhari sacked Ambassador Oke and last week, the EFCC filed four charges against him and his wife before the federal high court in Lagos. They were scheduled to be arraigned today before Justice CJ Aneke in connection with the sums of  $43.44m, £27,800 and N23.21m (totalling N13bn) removed by the EFCC from Flat 7B Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos.

Today,  however, the EFCC failed to produce them in court as its prosecutor, Rotimi Oyedepo appeared without the defendants and asked the court registrars to reschedule the arraignment until Wednesday, February 6. There have been online reports suggesting that Ambassador Oke and his wife may have left the country.

EFCC spokesman Tony Orilade, noted that as of Wednesday, the EFCC had still not been able to get hold of the Okes. Last week, the charges against the Okes and the sacked secretary to the government of the federation, Babachir Lawal, were believed to have come as a response to claims that President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-graft war is selective.

Although a presidential probe panel headed by vice president Professor Yemi Osinbajo had since 2017 indicted Mr Lawal and the Okes in its report, the federal government failed to act on the report, until last week when defendants were charged to court. The charges came only days after a civil society organisation, Human and Environmental Development Agenda Resource Centre, wrote the attorney-general of the federation, demanding that Mr Lawal and the Okes be equally speedily prosecuted in the manner the federal government was treating the case of the Justice Walter Onnoghen, who was charged with non-declaration of assets.

In the charge sheet marked filed against them, the EFCC alleged that Ambassador Oke and Folashade indirectly concealed the sum of $43,449, 947 found at Flat 7B, 16, Osborne Road, Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos. They were alleged to have committed the crime on April 12, 2017, contrary to Section 15(2)(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Amendment Act 2012.

In the second count, they were alleged to have between August 27, 2015 and September 2015 indirectly used $1,658,000, belonging to the federal government, contrary to the law. In the third and fourth counts, the defendants were alleged to directly retained the sum of $160,777,136.85, belong to the federal government.