Under Buhari Administration
SaharaReporters' checks showed that the former
minister is currently being prosecuted in various courts for alleged financial
fraud.
Former Minister of Finance, Senator Nenadi Usman, who
refunded N140million and surrendered two houses to the federal government over
alleged fraud, will lead the 29-member Caretaker Committee of the Labour Party.
Usman, a former Minister of Finance who represented
Kaduna South senatorial district from 2011 to 2015 at the National Assembly was
appointed the LP CTC Chair on Wednesday, during an extended stakeholders'
meeting held in Umuahia, the Abia State capital.
The immediate past Senate Minority Deputy Leader, Senator Darlington Nwokocha from Abia Central would serve as the Secretary of the 29-member committee, expected to complete its assignment in 90 days.
The Caretaker Committee is to rescue the party from
its current leadership crisis, and organise a convention where a new leadership
of the party would emerge from the Ward to the national stage.
In 2016, the Federal Government arraigned her before Justice Rilwan Aikawa for an alleged fraud of N4.9billion.
In the case, she is facing 17 counts of money
laundering and theft alongside a former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode;
one Danjuma Yusuf and a company, Joint Trust Dimensions Limited.
In January 24, 2022, the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, re-arraigned Nenadi Usman, Fani-Kayode, a former Minister of
Aviation; Yusuf Danjuma, a former National Chairman of the Association of Local
Government of Nigeria (ALGON) and a company, Joint-Trust Dimensions Nigeria
Limited, on a 17-count charge bordering on conspiracy and unlawful retention to
the tune of N1.5 billion before Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Federal High
Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos.
One of the count reads: “That you, Nnenadi Esther
Usman, Femi Fani-Kayode, Danjuma Yusuf and Jointrust Dimensions Nigeria Ltd.,
on or about the 8th day of January, 2015, within the jurisdiction of this
Honourable Court in Lagos, conspired amongst yourselves to indirectly retain
the sum of N1,500, 000,000.00 (One Billion, Five Hundred Million Naira), which
sum you reasonably ought to have known forms part of the proceeds of an
unlawful act to wit: stealing, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to
Section 18(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition)(Amendment) Act, 2012 and
punishable under Section 15(3) & 4 of the same Act.” The defendants pleaded
“not guilty” to the 17-count charge.
In view of their pleas, the prosecution counsel,
Rotimi Oyedepo, asked the court for a trial date. The trial was later fixed for
March 17, 2022.
It had also been reported that Senator Usman returned
N140million out of the N2.5billion allegedly from the office of the former
National Security Adviser ahead of the 2015 Presidential elections.
In addition, the former Senator, who served as the
Director of Finance for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Presidential
Campaign Organisation, surrendered two of her houses to the Federal Government
as a condition for her release from the custody of Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC.
According the report, she was arrested over various
sums of money, which were paid into her account, including the N2.5 billion
which was transferred out of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, into her account.
In addition, N140 million cash was allegedly paid into
her Zenith Bank Account in January 2015.
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