Amid Corruption Probe Labour Party Chairman Returned N140m, Two Houses
Senator Nenadi Usman, Former Minister of Finance, 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.
Checks showed that the former minister is currently being prosecuted in various courts for alleged financial fraud.
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.
