From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
A former Head of Service of the Federation (HoSF), Mr. Stephen Oronsaye, has been discharged and acquitted over the N2 billion fraud charge filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Abuja division of the Federal High Court in his judgment, yesterday, held that the prosecution failed to provide enough evidence to warrant a conviction.
Two companies charged along with him -Fredrick Hamilton Global Services Ltd and Drew Investment and Construction Company Ltd), were, however, pronounced guilty as charged.
Justice Ekwo, in his judgment, held: “Now, on the the case of the first defendant (Oronsaye), I find upon evaluating the evidence of the prosecution in this case, from the evidence of PW1-PW21, that no credible evidence has been adduced by the prosecution linking him with the offences, alleged against him in counts 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 31, 32, 34 and 42 of the count sheet. I make an order discharging and acquitting him.”
On the case of the third defendant, (Frederick Hamilton Global Services Ltd), I have already found that it has been incriminated by the evidence of PW17 of the inflow into the account of the third defendant part of which the sum of N40 million was withdrawn by Abdulrasheed Abdulahi Maina.
“This evidence was not rebutted. The case against the third defendant with respect to counts 22 and 24 have been proved by the prosecution beyond reasonable doubt, and I so hold. I, therefore, find the third defendant guilty as charged.
“In the case of the sixth defendant (Drew Investment and Construction Company Ltd), a company owned by Abdulrasheed Abdullahi Maina, I find that it has been incriminated by the evidence of PW6, PW7, PW18 and PW20. The case against the sixth defendant with respect to count 48 has been proved by the prosecution beyond reasonable doubt, and I so hold. I, therefore, find the sixth defendant guilty as charged.’
The case began in 2015 with the arraignment of Oronsaye alongside the Managing Director of Frederick Hamilton Global Services Limited, Mr Osarenkhoe Afe.
They were docked on 49 count charges bordering on fraud. But the charges were later amended after the anti-graft commission separated the parts involving a former head of the Presidential Pension Task Force, Abdulrasheed Maina, who was then at large. Maina was later charged separately by the EFCC and was subsequently convicted and sentenced to eight years imprisonment in November 2021.
Equally charged alongside Oronsaye by the EFCC were three companies – Cluster Logistic Limited; Kangolo Dynamic Cleaning Limited, and Drew Investment & Construction Company Limited.
The anti-graft agency alleged that the defendants had, between 2010 and 2011, used the firms to divert public funds through procurement fraud. The EFCC equally accused Orosanye and the others of using inflated biometrics enrolment contracts, collective allowances and other schemes to siphon money from accounts containing pensioners’ funds.
The commission also tendered a report of the Auditor-General of the Federation on the federal government’s pension accounts, which indicted Oronsaye and others of wrongdoing.