Whistleblower behind raids on ex-VP Sambo’s house charged, remanded over false information

A whistleblower, Abubakar Sani-Chindo, who gave false information that led to a series of raids on the house of former Vice President Namadi Sambo, has been reminded in prison.

A Kaduna State High Court remanded Sani-Chindo in prison on Thursday, after discovering that the information he provided to security agencies which led to the raids on Sambo’s house was false.

The last raid on Sambo’s Kaduna residence was carried out on June 28 by officials of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

The former leader had claimed that the raid was the fifth time in six months that the security agencies raided his residence. But another report from the security agencies claimed that his house was raided thrice and that no incriminating documents or stashed cash was discovered in the building on those three occasions.

In a two-count charge before Justice Aliyu Mohammed, the ICPC accused Sani-Chindo of providing the false information that led to the raids.

ICPC lawyer, Elijah Akaakohol, also told the court that the whistleblower had sometime on June 21, 2017 gave the false information to the commission.

Part of the counts read, “That you, Abubakar Sani-Chindo (alias Abdullahi Mohammed) (m), sometime on June 21, 2017 or thereafter at Kaduna, Kaduna State within the jurisdiction of this honourable court knowingly gave a false information to an officer of the commission that sometime in 2013 you conveyed huge sums of money, both in Nigerian and other foreign currencies from the Abuja airport to a house at Ungwan Rimi, GRA, on the directive of an Army officer, which money you suspected to be ill-gotten wealth and is still lying in boxes at the moment of your report and of which you made the officers of the commission to carry out a sting operation that turned out to be false, and you committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 64(3)of the Corrupt Practices and other related offences Act 2000.

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“That you, Abubakar Sani-Chindo (alias Abdullahi Mohammed) (m) sometime on June 21, 2017 or thereafter at Kaduna, Kaduna State, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, knowingly made a false statement to Mr. Olusegun Adigun, an officer, in the exercise of his duties as a public officer,

“That sometime in 2013, you conveyed a huge sum of money both in the Nigerian and other foreign currencies from the Abuja airport to a house in Ungwan Rimi, GRA, Kaduna, on the directive of a retired Army officer, which money you suspected to be ill-gotten wealth and still lying in boxes in that said house at the moment of your report and of which you made the officer of the commission of the ICPC to carry out a sting operation that turned out to be false, thereby committing an offence, contrary to Section 25(1) and punishable under Section 25(1b) of the ICPC act 2000.”

Sani-Chindo pleaded not guilty to all the charges after they were read out to him.
However the presiding judge, Justice Mohammed, ordered that the accused person be remanded in prison custody and adjourned the case till November 2 to enable the accused person secure a counsel when the case will come up for hearing.

By Ebere Ndukwu …

 

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