sixth defendants in the money laundering trial of a former Head of
Service of the Federation (HoS) Winifred Oyo-Iya and others, till
February 24, 2021.
Oyo Ita was arraigned on 18-count charge bordering on fraud and money
laundering to the tune of over N570, 000, 000 (Five Hundred and Seventy
Million Naira). She is alleged to have obtained estacodes and duty tour
allowance, DTA, for journeys either not undertaken or non-existent.
Others that were arraigned along with Oyo-Ita are: Frontline Ace Global
Services Limited; Asanaya Projects Limited; Garba Umar and his
companies: Slopes International Limited and Gooddeal Investments
Limited. Ubong Okon Effiok was equally arraigned with his companies: U
& U Global Services Limited and Prince Mega Logistics Limited.
One of the counts against Oyo-Ita reads: “That you WINIFRED OYO-ITA (aka
Winifred Ekanett), whilst being the Head of Civil Service of the
Federation between 2nd August, 2016 and 28th February, 2018 within the
jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, took possession of an aggregate
Sum of N62,215,169 (Sixty Two Million, Two Hundred and Fifteen Thousand,
One Hundred and Sixty Nine Naira) only paid into your Zenith Bank
account No: 1001074067 knowing that the said funds formed part of the
proceed of an unlawful activity to wit: fraud (purported estacodes, fee
for journeys not embarked on) and you thereby committed an offence
contrary to Section 15(2) (d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act,
2011 (as amended) and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act”.
The defendants pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the charges.
After their arraignment, the EFCC originated a non-conviction forfeiture
process before Justice F. Ogunbanjo of the Federal High Court, who
granted an order freezing the accounts of some of the defendants as
sought by Commission.
Dissatisfied by the freeze order, the defendants challenged the
propriety of the Order before Justice Taiwo, claiming it amounted to an
abuse of court process.
At the last adjourned date, December 2, 2020 Justice Taiwo had fixed
February 11, for ruling on the propriety of the freeze order after the
defendants had been properly arraigned before him.
However at the mention of the case on Thursday, the trial judge noted
that the ruling was not ready as the court had to take into account all
the submissions, including processes that the prosecution was mandated
to submit.
According to him, “as an oversight, the court did not know that the
prosecution had filed documents before the court, therefore it will have
to adjourn the matter to enable the court deliver ruling on the
submission made on the freezing order by my learned brother, Justice
Ogunbanjo.”