An additional 15 criminal charges were on Tuesday filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against Jide Omokore and others.
Omokore and the other defendants are facing nine-count amended charges from the EFCC that border on alleged money laundering and procurement fraud to the tune of $1.6billion.
In their ongoing trial before Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Omokore, two of his companies: Atlantic Energy Brass Limited and Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited, Victor Briggs and Membere Abiye were further indicted by the graft agency.
They have however pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Led in evidence at today’s sitting by prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), prosecution witness, Abdulrasheed Bawa, told the court, how huge monetary transactions transpired among the defendants.
The witness, an investigator and data analyst with the EFCC, revealed that sometime in 2013, the EFCC received a complaint from a non-governmental agency urging the Commission to investigate the activities of the former minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, adding that the transactions involved huge sums of money in United States dollars between the first defendant and his companies in respect of Strategic Alliance Agreement on Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) 26, 30, 34 and 42.
The witness told the court that the EFCC received intelligence from Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) through the foreign based Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), on the alleged fraudulent transactions in dollars from the second and third defendants to one of their offshore companies.
Speaking further, Bawa explained that the letters of the investigative activities were sent to NNPC, NPDC, Ministry of Petroleum Resources detailing the EFCC’s reports on the OML 26, 30, 34, 42, 4 38, and 41.
The prosecution witness, further identified exhibit three-30, as correspondences between the EFCC and some of the companies.
Meanwhile, the trial Judge, Dimgba adjourned the matter until March 23, 2020 for continuation of trial.
