Ladipo Sanusi/
The federal government today dragged five directors in the ministry of information, culture and tourism to court for allegedly collecting N500,000 bribe.
The directors, who are attached to the National Arts Theatre, were arraigned at a Federal High Court in Lagos, by the Attorney-General of the Federation.
The accused persons are, George Ufot Ukanta, Abiodun Abe, Femi Joel, Ndubuisi Nwogu and Mrs. Doris Okafor.
They were accused of collecting the money from a contractor working with the federal government.
The charge, marked FHC/L/282c/18, alleged that the accused persons “on January 16, 2017, obtained the sum of N500,000 from a commercial firm, Market Execution Solution Limited, which has a contract with the federal government of Nigeria, in the course of discharging their duty”.
It added that “the offences are contrary to Section 10(1) g& (2) of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, and punishable under section 1(2) & and 10(1)(a) of the Recovery of the Public Property (Special Provisions) Act”.
The arraignment of the accused persons was however stalled due to the absence of Mrs. Okafor, said to be on admission at the Military Hospital, Ikoyi, Lagos.
Lawyer to the remaining four accused persons, Mr. Adamu Mohammed, informed the court that the fifth accused, Okafor, was in court earlier, but was rushed to the Military Hospital after she developed an undisclosed medical condition.
He said two soldiers later brought a medical report from the hospital on her behalf to the court.
The lawyer further told the court that his clients knew about the charge through the media and were only served the charge on the premises of the court, today, around 2 pm.
He called the attention of the court to the fact that the name on the charge was not the same as the fifth accused and that the prosecution had also amended the error without obtaining the court’s leave to do so.
The lawyer also informed the court that his clients have filed separate applications challenging the court’s jurisdiction and for bail.
He pleaded with the court to fix another date for the arraignment of the accused persons, due to the absence of the fifth accused.
The prosecutor, Dr. Colsus Ukpong, told the court that the fifth accused had been evading service of the charge, adding that the medical report was another ploy to evade the arraignment.
Ukpong also said he had intended to request a bench warrant against the fifth accused, but urged the court to use its discretion in ordering the service of the charge on the accused.
He suggested that the court could ask her lawyer to receive the charge on her behalf.
The defence counsel agreed with the suggestion and received the charge on behalf of the fifth accused.
Justice Sule Hassan, thereafter, adjourned the arraignment of the accused persons till May 14.
0