A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday remanded two staff of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), at the Kuje correctional facility pending the hearing on a N1.835 billion fraud allegation.
The two staff, Umar Musa Karaye and Emmanuel Pada Titus, and two others had been arraigned by the Independent and Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, (ICPC) before Justice Emeka Nwite, over alleged fraud, criminal conspiracy and diversion of public funds amounting to N1.835 billion.
It would be recalled that Osuoben Ekoi Akpanimisingha, assistant chief legal officer with ICPC, during an earlier hearing of the case on June 6, 2024, said the defendants deliberately failed to appear in court, despite having been personally served notice, and full details of their arraignments by the commission.
In the four-count charge, the anti-graft commission accused the defendants of receiving the sums of N165m and N261m respectively in different tranches under the false presence of project supervision thereby committing an offence contrary to the Advanced Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.
The court adjourned the case to June 20, 2024, for a bail hearing and July 10 2024 for the commencement of trials respectively.
