N7.74BN FRAUD: Lockdown forces court to shift date in trial of Kenny Martins

The trial of Kenny Martins over alleged fraud in the N7.74 billion Police Equipment Fund may no longer hold on Tuesday (today) as earlier fixed.

A statement on Monday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC’s) acting Head, Media and Publicity, Tony Orilade said the development was due to the lockdown in force in Abuja and many other parts of the country to curb the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.

He said that a fresh date may be fixed for the trial after the lockdown.

The EFCC is prosecuting Martins over an alleged fraud before Justice Modupe Adebiyi of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

The court had fixed Tuesday for his trial.

However, due to the shutdown of courts by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, following the Covid-19 lockdown of Abuja and some other parts of the country, some scheduled proceedings are no longer feasible.

The EFCC is claiming that Martins, as the coordinator of the Police Equipment Fund, allegedly connived with three others to perpetrate the alleged fraud.

Justice Mohammed Talba, then of FCT High Court, Gudu, Abuja, now elevated to the Court of Appeal bench, had on November 24, 2009, discharged Martins and his co-defendants- Ibrahim Dumuje, Joni Icheka and ­Cosmas Okpara – in his judgment on the no-case submission filed by the defendants.

Not satisfied, the anti-graft agency appealed the judgment.

On June 28, 2012, the Court of Appeal in Abuja upheld EFCC’s appeal, with the court in its lead judgment read by Justice Regina Nwodo holding that Justice Talba of the FCT High Court erred by discharging the defendants.

The court ordered the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court to reassign the case to another judge for re-trial.

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Following the defendants’ appeal to the Supreme Court, the apex court in its judgment on March 23, 2018 affirmed the Court of Appeal’s verdict and ordered the retrial in the case.

The EFCC subsequently amended the charges and arraigned them before Justice Adebiyi on January 15, 2020 for their various alleged roles in forging Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) documents to facilitate the PEF fraud among other allegations.

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