Mohammed Abacha’s case of stealing stalled

The arraignment of Mohammed Abacha, the son of late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, by the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation was stalled on Thursday due to non service of charges on the defence counsel.
Mohammed was to be arraigned before Justice Mamman Kolo of an FCT High Court on charges of receiving stolen property worth N100.38 billion.
The property was said to be owned by his late father, which was later forfeited to the Federal Government
In his submission, Counsel to Abacha, Abdullahi Haruna, told the court that he got to know about the arraignment “by accident”.
Haruna said: “My lord, we are not aware of this arraignment because we were not served with hearing notice, charge sheet and witness statements on oath.”
Earlier, counsel to the AGF, Daniel Enwelum, told the court the court that the matter was for arraignment of Abacha but he was not in court.
Enwelum said: “My Lord, we served the accused with the hearing notice and notice for amendment of the charge.
“The accused is not here to take his plea.”
Justice Kolo then ordered the prosecution to duly serve the accused’s counsel with court processes.
He fixed April 29, for arraignment.
In another development, Kolo also granted the application for amendment of the charge, which was filed by the prosecution, to withdraw the name of a businessman, Atiku Bagudu, from the case.
Bagudu was to be arraigned alongside Abacha on the same charge.
Bagudu’s counsel, Rickey Tarfa (SAN), had applied to the court to withdraw the name of the client on the charge sheet.
The AGF’s counsel did not object.