Former Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Abdullahi Dikko, and two other persons are to be arraigned next week Thursday over alleged stealing of more than N1 billion.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, has filed a suit to that effect.
It will come up before Justice Lucia Ojukwu of Court 7, Abuja Federal High Court.
Also to face trial are a former Assistant Comptroller-General of the agency in charge of Finance, Administration and Technical Services, Garba Makarfi, and Umar Hussaini, a lawyer and owner of Capital Law Office.
The defendants are charged for allegedly inducing the Managing Director of Cambial Limited, Yemi Obadeyi, to pay N1.1 billion (N1,100, 952,380.96) into the account of Capital Law Office as a refundable “completion security deposit.”
The payment was in connection with the purchase of 120 units of duplexes as residential accommodation for officers of the Nigeria Customs Service.
The money, ICPC alleged, was collected illegally by Messrs Dikko and Makarfi through the account of Hussaini’s firm.
It also alleged that Hussaini shared the money into different accounts between April 6 and December 2010.
From the money, Makarfi was said to have received $3 million.
ICPC stated that the activities of the defendants as stated were in violation of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000; Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006, and Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended).
According to ICPC’s legal officer, Ephraim Otti, evidence from the investigation established a prima facie case against the accused persons.
Dikko, who was the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service between August 2009 and August 2015, had at different times been accused of financial malpractices and certificate forgery.
In a case against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), 17 exotic vehicles were ordered to be seized from him in 2017.
Justice S. M. Shuaibu of the Federal High Court in Kaduna gave an interim order to that effect.
