By Jude-Ken Ojinnaka
A staff of the account and finance department of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Henrietta Okojie was on Friday docked by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) before Justice Emeka Nwite of a Federal High Court, Abuja over her alleged role in a N1.85 billion fraud.
The defendant’s arraignment came barely a week after ICPC arraigned Usman Kwakwa, another staff of the Commission on similar charges before the same judge.
Henrietta was docked by the ICPC on four counts charge before Justice Nwite.
When the matter was called, ICPC’s prosecutor Osuobeni Akponimisingha, informed the court that the day’s proceeding was fixed for Ms Okojie to take her plea.
But before her plea was taken, the prosecutor applied for the court to vacate June 6 bench warrant issued against the defendant, since she was in court on Friday to take her plea. The judge granted the request and vacated the bench warrant.
When the four counts charge was read to Ms Okojie, she pleaded not guilty to all the charges preferred against her.
In view of her not guilty plea, the prosecutor, Mr Akponimisingha, applied for a trial date.
But Ms Okojie’s counsel Ishiaku Garba, told the court that a bail application had been filed and served on the prosecution on June 11.
Responding, the prosecutor said though the defence served the application on his office on Tuesday, he only saw it on Thursday and would need time to respond.
“My lord, on June 12 was a public holiday, and I couldn’t have come to the office,” he said.” He said he should be allowed to respond in the interest of fair hearing,
The judge agreed that the prosecution should be given time to respond to the bail application.
While adjourning the matter to June 20, for hearing of the defendant’s bail application, Justice Nwite fixed July 10, for trial. He ordered that the defendant be remanded in Suleja Correctional Centre.
Justice Nwite had, on 6 June, issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Okojie, Musa Karaye and Emmanuel Pada for failure to appear in court for their arraignment. The judge gave the order after Mr Akponimisingha had moved an oral application for bench warrant to be issued to the defendants.
He then fixed Ms Okojie’s matter until Friday June 14 for ICPC to produce her in court and also fixed Karaye’s and Panda’s cases for Thursday June 13 Thursday.
The massive fraud was allegedly perpetrated by some officials of the Commission last year.
The ICPC had filed separate cases of four charges each against the affected officials, including Usman Ahmed Kwakwa, over allegations of misappropriation of public funds meant to provide electricity to rural communities across the country.
In the charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/203/24, ICPC accused Ms Okojie in count one that sometime in March 2023 she, with intent to defraud the REA, received the sum of N342 million in different tranches through her Access Bank Account: 0009022275 under the false pretence of project supervision.
According to the charge, the offence contravened Section 1(1)(a) and punishable under Section 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.
The total amount alleged to have been fraudulently received by all the defendants was about N1.85 billion.