EFCC seized my property in error-Igbinedion

By Innocent Anaba
Embattled former Governor of Edo State, Chief Lucky Igbinedion, has told a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, that the order obtained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, upon which his property were seized, was in error.

He contended that the present charge filed against him before the Benin Division of the court was in all respect, same with the charge filed against him in 2008, for which he had been tried and convicted.

Lucky Igbinedion is urging the court to set aside the order of interim forfeiture of his assets in Benin, Lagos, Abuja and London, granted the commission, contending that the facts upon which the order was based were the same facts contained in the charge levelled against him  in 2008. According to him, since he had served the punishment for the 2008 offences, the present action of the EFCC constituted an abuse of court process.

Igbinedion, in an 11-paragraph affidavit in support of his application for the setting aside of the order, insisted that a plea bargain was entered into between himself and the EFCC and that the commission misrepresented the facts of the case to secure the order.

He further averred that “the allegation of the purported collection of N250m from the Local Government Joint Allocation Accounts belonging to the local governments in Edo State (which was never admitted) and all the other offences alleged in the charges in these proceedings formed part of the investigations conducted by the EFCC,  which culminated in the said Charge No. FHC/EN/6C/2008 between  FRN vs. Lucky Igbinedion and Ors and the resultant plea bargain leading to the sentence and conviction therein.”

According to him, he was never confronted with the allegation that he directed any person to pay funds belonging to Edo State government to the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th accused persons’ accounts before the filing of Charge No. FHC/B/11C/2011 and that he did not at any time give any instruction to anybody whatsoever to collect the sum of N250m from the accounts of Edo State government to provide security for a local government election.”

Igbinedion is accusing the EFCC of prosecuting him twice for the same offence, contending that the present charge against him in charge FHC/B/11C/2011, was an abuse of court process.

Comments are moderated. Please keep them clean and brief.

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
blog comments powered by