{"id":438367,"date":"2011-06-08T18:49:10","date_gmt":"2011-06-08T18:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/06\/08\/former-house-speaker-pleads-not-guilty-to-charges\/"},"modified":"2011-06-08T18:49:10","modified_gmt":"2011-06-08T18:49:10","slug":"former-house-speaker-pleads-not-guilty-to-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/former-house-speaker-pleads-not-guilty-to-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"Former House Speaker Pleads Not Guilty to Charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"80.4528026292\">\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thisdaylive.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/thisday180.jpg\" alt=\"This Day (Lagos)\" title=\"Visit This Day (Lagos)\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tobi Soniyi<\/p>\n<p>8 June 2011<\/p>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p>A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja Wednesday ordered that former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, be remanded in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) till Friday when his bail application would be taken.<\/p>\n<p>Bankole, who has been in the custody of EFCC since he was arrested on Sunday at his Asokoro, Abuja residence pleaded not guilty to the 16-count charge of contract inflation to the tune of N894m filed against him.<\/p>\n<p>He appeared unruffled and even managed a smile in the course of his trial.<\/p>\n<p>During the arraignment, Bankole&#8217;s lawyer, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo SAN , drew the attention of the trial judge, Justice Donatus Okorowo, to what he described as media trial by EFCC.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, the commission had deliberately been embarrassing his client.<\/p>\n<p>He told the court that journalists and photographers were arranged to cover his arrest just to embarrass him.<\/p>\n<p>Responding, EFCC lawyer, Festus Keyamo , said the commission was not using the media to witch hunt Bankole<\/p>\n<p>He said he did not have control over the media and that both parties had equal access to the media.<\/p>\n<p>Responding, the judge warned the prosecution against persecuting the suspect.<\/p>\n<p>He reminded journalists that the court has powers to punish for contempt.<\/p>\n<p>Thereafter, the judge refused Bankole&#8217;s lawyer&#8217;s oral application for bail.<\/p>\n<p>He ordered that Bankole be remanded in custody till Friday when his bail application would be heard.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Okorowo adjourned the case to July 26 and 27 for trial.<\/p>\n<p>Last Tuesday, the commission filed a 16-count charge of contract inflation amounting to N894 million against Bankole.<\/p>\n<p>Details of the charges show that Bankole was accused of colluding with some people who were said to be at large to increase the cost of purchasing Samsung television sets, HP computers, Digital copiers, 2 units of Range Rover Bullet Proof vehicles and 3 units of Mercedes Benz S-600 cars among others.<\/p>\n<p>The offences were said to have been contrary to Section 58(4)(a) of the Public Procurement Act punishable under Section 58(5) of the same law.<\/p>\n<p>Count 1 of the charges reads: &#8220;That you, Dimeji Bankole and others now at large on or about the 28th of May, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, being Body of Principal officers of the House of Representatives responsible for the approval of contracts in the House of Representatives, with intent to defraud, did conspire amongst yourselves to inflate the cost of 400 units of 40-inch Samsung (LNS.3410 Television sets by approval the purchase of the said item at the rate of N525, 000.00 per unit, instead of the prevailing market price of N295, 000.00 and thereby committed an offense contrary to Section 58 (4) (a) of the public Procurement Act No. 14 of 2007 and punishable under Section 58 (5) of the same Act.&#8221;He was also accused of colluding with other people whose names were not disclosed and with intent to defraud, rigged the bid for the purchase of 100 units of Sharp Digital Copier 5316 by refusal to follow all the procedures prescribed for public procurements in Sections 17 to 56 of the Public Procurement Act N0.14 of 2007, leading to a loss of value to the national treasury.<\/p>\n<p>The commission further said Bankole and other principal officers of the House of Representatives responsible for the approval of contracts in the House of Representatives, with intent to defraud, did conspire amongst themselves to inflate the cost of 800 units of desktop computers (HP Compaq dc 5700) by approving the purchase of the said item at the rate of N330,000.00 per unit, instead of the prevailing market price of N160,000.00 per unit.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<fieldset>\n<legend align=\"center\"><strong>More News on allAfrica.com<\/strong><\/legend>\n<\/fieldset>\n<p>AllAfrica &#8211; All the Time<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>See the original post:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/stories\/201106081226.html\" title=\"Former House Speaker Pleads Not Guilty to Charges\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Former House Speaker Pleads Not Guilty to Charges<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Tobi Soniyi 8 June 2011 A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja Wednesday ordered that former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, be remanded in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) till Friday when his bail application would be taken. Bankole, who has been in the custody of EFCC since he was arrested on Sunday at his Asokoro, Abuja residence pleaded not guilty to the 16-count charge of contract inflation to the tune of N894m filed against him. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":438368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-438367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Former House Speaker Pleads Not Guilty to Charges - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/former-house-speaker-pleads-not-guilty-to-charges\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Former House Speaker Pleads Not Guilty to Charges - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Tobi Soniyi 8 June 2011 A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja Wednesday ordered that former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, be remanded in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) till Friday when his bail application would be taken. Bankole, who has been in the custody of EFCC since he was arrested on Sunday at his Asokoro, Abuja residence pleaded not guilty to the 16-count charge of contract inflation to the tune of N894m filed against him.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/former-house-speaker-pleads-not-guilty-to-charges\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/former-house-speaker-pleads-not-guilty-to-charges\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Former House Speaker Pleads Not Guilty to Charges\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-08T18:49:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/former-house-speaker-pleads-not-guilty-to-charges\/\"},\"wordCount\":622,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/former-house-speaker-pleads-not-guilty-to-charges\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"articleSection\":[\"Local News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/former-house-speaker-pleads-not-guilty-to-charges\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/former-house-speaker-pleads-not-guilty-to-charges\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/former-house-speaker-pleads-not-guilty-to-charges\/\",\"name\":\"Former House Speaker Pleads Not Guilty to Charges - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/former-house-speaker-pleads-not-guilty-to-charges\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/former-house-speaker-pleads-not-guilty-to-charges\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-08T18:49:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/former-house-speaker-pleads-not-guilty-to-charges\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/former-house-speaker-pleads-not-guilty-to-charges\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Former House Speaker Pleads Not Guilty to Charges - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/former-house-speaker-pleads-not-guilty-to-charges\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Former House Speaker Pleads Not Guilty to Charges - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"Tobi Soniyi 8 June 2011 A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja Wednesday ordered that former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, be remanded in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) till Friday when his bail application would be taken. 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