Bankole to Appear Before Court Today as Former Speaker Alleges Maltreatment
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is set to arraign the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, before Justice Donatus Okorowa of the Federal High Court 7 in Abuja today. This is coming as the anti-corruption body yesterday filed formal charges against him.
Mr Bankole, whose earlier arrest was foiled Friday last week due to the intervention of the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, was picked up at his Asokoro, Abuja home by 8pm Sunday evening and is still in the custody of the EFCC.
A 16-count charge was preferred against Mr Bankole by Festus Keyamo, a private prosecutor for the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice. Surprisingly, however, the much talked about N10 billion loan allegedly borrowed by the former speaker was missing among the charges. Efforts made last night to ascertain from the EFCC why that was the case proved unsuccessful.
The charges filed yesterday against the Ogun State-born politician include stated: “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.
“That you, Dimeji Bankole and others now at large, on or about the 28th of May, 2008 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, 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 and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 58 (4) (e) of the Public Procurement Act, No.14 of 2007 and punishable under Section 58 (5) of the same Act.
“That you, Dimeji Bankole and others now at large, on or about the 28th of May, 2008 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, rigged the bid for the purchase of 3 units of Mercedes Benz S-600 cars by refusal to follow all the procedures prescribed for public procurements in Sections 17 to 56 of the Public Procurement Act No.14 of 2007, leading to a loss of value to the national treasury and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 58 (4) (e) of the Public Procurement Act, No.14 of 2007 and punishable under Section 58 (5) of the same Act.”
Allegation of maltreatment
But Mr Idowu Bakare, Media Aide to Mr Bankole in a statement yesterday said the EFCC is currently subjecting the former speaker to psychological torture as it had refused access to him by his team of lawyers and family members since he was arrested on Sunday night at his residence in Abuja.
Specifically, he said, “We gathered that EFCC has not forgiven comments credited to Bankole by Wi
kileaks to the effect that EFCC is not ‘worth a penny’ even after Bankole has publicly denied making such a statement about the organisation months ago.
“This is against his fundamental and constitutional rights to have access to his lawyers and close family members while in custody of the anti-graft agency. Information at our disposal indicates that pressure was mounted on him throughout Sunday night to get him to write a statement implicating some members of the House of Representatives,” the statement said.
He added, “So far the ant-graft agency even without concluding investigation has portrayed Bankole as guilty from his utterances and selective persecution and is refusing to charge him to court to decide on the case as stipulated by the law within a time limit.”
It would be recalled that in December 2007 at an executive session presided over by Mr Bankole, the House of Representatives approved the purchase of 380 units of Peugeot 407 cars; five for each of the 76 committees of the house. This transaction was followed by wide allegations that some members made financial gains from the deal because Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN), which supplied the vehicles, allegedly supplied inferior vehicles at significantly less cost than the approved ones.
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