N28m fraud: Two ex-LG chairmen, seven others arraigned

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arraigned two former chairmen of Shelleng Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Benson Bamali and Tanko B. Ezra, alongside seven others on a 33-count charge of conspiracy, stealing, forgery and misappropriation of public funds.
They were arraigned before Justice Hafsat Abdulrahman of the Adamawa State High Court sitting in Yola.
Other accused persons in the case include Cletus Muryo (former Head of Service), Dantingo Jiposhe (former Director Primary Healthcare), Nimfas Hassan, Mohammed Abubakar, Mohammed Wardi, Mobolaji Ojo ( contractor) and First Class Ventures,
They all pleaded not guilty to the charge, which was originally preferred against them before Justice Audu Lagre on May 5, 2009.
The case could not however continue due to the Judge’s transfer and the subsequent reassignment of the case to the present judge.
Counsel to the accused persons, Sule Abul, N.G.Ngaro and B.A.Yaba, applied for extension of the subsisting bail granted to their clients by the former court, stressing that the accused persons have duly complied with the bail conditions.
Prosecution counsel, Mohammed Bello, consented to the application.
Justice Abdulrahman granted the application by defence counsel.
She thereafter fixed March 25, 27 and 28, 2013 as well as April 2 and 3, 2013 for trial.
The accused person’s travail with the law started when a petition dated April 1, 2008 was written to the EFCC from a concerned citizen of Shelleng Local Government Area alleging official corruption and low development of the local government despite financial allocations accruing to it.
Upon investigation, the Commission found that about N28 million had been misappropriated.
Further investigations revealed various roles played by the accused persons, including the level of conspiracy and forgery of documents used in siphoning the funds.