The charge sheet before Justice Olajuwon of the Federal High Court Abuja alleged that Sambo sometime in March 2023 or thereabout while being a public officer in the employment of REA at Abuja within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, ‘did with intent to defraud the said REA authorized and finalized the sum of N1,835,000.000, 00 in different tranches under the false pretence of project supervision exercise and thereby committed an offence contrary and punishable under Section 6(4) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention Act, 2015).
Abdullahi was charged before the court for using his role to authorise and finalise payments without proper approvals, bypassing the legal processes through the Government Integrated Financial Information System platform (GIFMIS) of the REA to other staff who had been arraigned.
The defendant is alleged to have made these unauthorized payments into the accounts of other staff in the accounts department, which were arraigned a week ago before Justice Emeka Nwite.
In the charge sheet, co-signed by Henry Empire, Director of Legal Services and Osuoben Ekoi Akponimisinghi, Assistant Legal Officer of the ICPC, they scrutinized an unusual inflow of monies from the agency to Okojie Onomen N342m, Asuni Aminat N336m, Usman Kwa Kwa N298m, Shehu Abdullahi N433m, Emmanuel Titus N261m and Musa Karaye N165M.
These transfers were made in tranches not to draw attention and were made in a manner that does not fall within the currency Transaction report.
Meanwhile at the bail hearing before Olajuwon at the High Court in Abuja today, Abdullahi was granted bail for N200 Million, 2 sureties in like sum, landed properties with original C/O within the jurisdiction, evidence of tax clearance for 3 years and his passport photographs.
Similarly, Umar Musa Karaye, Emmanuel Pada Titus and Henrietta Okojie were granted bails in the sums of N50 million each respectively, with two Sureties one in like sum and a respected citizen who swears to the affidavit of means, landed properties with original C/O, evidence of tax clearance for the past 3 years and passport photographs.
Consequently, the court adjourned the hearing of the suspended REA DFA to July 17 and other staff to July 10 respectively.
