Alleged Bribery: Three INEC chiefs granted N100m bail each

The Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday granted bail to three Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials attached to Osun State following their arraignment for alleged money laundering and bribery. Justice Chuka Obiozor granted them bail for N100m each with one surety in like sum. The sureties, said the judge, must have landed property in Lagos and present three-year tax clearance. The judge, who is sitting temporarily during the ongoing annual long vacation, remitted the case file to the Chief Judge for assignment to a substantive judge for trial when the court resumes next month. The defendants, who had been in Ikoyi Prison since their arraignment on August 1, will remain there until they meet their bail terms. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Gbadegun Abiodun, Oladipo Oladapo and Afolabi Albert on five- count charge of conspiracy to receive millions of naira in cash without going through a financial institution. EFCC said the trio, on March 30, 2015, conspired to accept cash payment of N177.3million without going through a financial institution. The Commission said the offence of accepting cash payment exceeding N5million violates Section 18 and is punishable under Section 16 (2) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended by the Act No 2, 2012. Abiodun, Oladapo and others at large were said to have used N22million in April 2015 which they allegedly obtained through forgery thereby violating Section 15 (2) (d) of the Money Laundering Act. In Count Four, EFCC said Oladapo and others at large took possession of N3million in cash from Abiodun when he “reasonably ought to have known that the fund was a proceed of your unlawful activity to wit: bribery.”]]>