Oronsaye and two others – Osarenkhoe Afe and his company, Fredrick Hamilton Global Services Limited – were arraigned on July 13, this year, on a 24-count of laundering about N1.2 billion. They pleaded not guilty. They were charged under Section 14 of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004 and Section 1(1) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006. Yesterday, the prosecution, which was expected to by call its first set of witnesses, told Justice Gabriel Kolawole that it had filed a fresh charge. Prosecuting counsel Adebisi Adeniyi said the new charge contained 35 counts, with more corporate organisations as defendants. They are Global Services Limited, Cluster Logistic Limited, Kangolo Dynamic Cleaning Limited, Crew Investment & Construction Company Limited, in addition to Oronsaye, Afe and his company. Justice Kolawole rejected the objection by Oronsaye’s lawyer, Ade Okeaya-Inneh (SAN), to the new charge. He, however, frowned at the prosecution’s decision to file an amended charge less than 24 hours to the trial. “I am only concerned that the state only realised in less than 24 hours to the date of hearing that it needed to bring an amended charge by not only increasing the counts from 24 in the original charge to 35 in the amended charge and to increase the number of counts from three to six. “This, in my view, is a rather untidy manner in handling criminal prosecution. I dare say that it is in force with opinion expressed by the Chief Justice that prosecution of corruption cases are often delayed because the investigation is often driven by arrest-led investigation rather than investigation-led arrest. “By this, it seems that it was after the defendants herein were arrested and charged to court that investigation carried out showed that the state needs to bring charges against three other defendants and increase the number of counts,” the judge said. Justice Kolawole directed the prosecution to serve the new charge on the defendants and adjourned to November 25. Oronsaye, Afe and his company were, in the earlier charge, accused of jointly defrauding the Federal Government of N118,992,201.6 under the guise of paying the money in tranches for the contract of biometric data capture project between March 2010 and December 2011. They were alleged to have committed the offence by paying for phoney contracts to nine companies, including Innovative Solutions, Fredrick Hamilton Global Serices, Xangee Technologies Limited, Fatideck Ventures, Obalando Nigeria Enterprises, Moshfad Enterprises and Fesbee Global Resources Limited. Other companies named by the prosecution included Jolance Integrated Concept Limited and MOF Investment Limited. The prosecution said Abdulrasheed Maina, allegedly involved in the deal, is on the run.]]>