Former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Bello Adoke, and one Abubakar Aliyu have both been slammed with a seven-count charge of corruption and money laundering.
T
he Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, filed the suit against the duo before the Federal High Court bordering on the alleged extortion and spending of about N797.3 million.
The former AG was arrested at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja on December 19 and has remained in EFCC custody since then.
Adoke is also faced with a one-count charge for his alleged participation in the highly controversial $1.3bn Malabu Oil scandal, while his accomplices Ibrahim Magu and Abubakar Aliyu.
The charges read in part,
“That you, Mohammed Bello Adoke, sometime in September 2013, in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, accepted as payment the sum of United States dollars equivalent to N300,000,000.00 (Three hundred million naira) from Abubakar Aliyu and you thereby committed an offence as specified under Section 1 (a) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 (as amended) and punishable under Section 16 (2)(b) of the same Act.
READ ALSO: Leah Sharibu Currently Around Lake Chad, Says Rescued Boko Haram Captive
“That you, Mohammed Bello Adoke, sometime in September 2013, in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, made a payment of a sum of United States dollars equivalent to N367,318,800.00 (Three hundred and sixty-seven million, three hundred and eighteen thousand, eight hundred naira) to one Usman Mohammed Bello and you thereby committed an offence as specified under Section 1(a) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 (as amended) and punishable under Section 16 (2)(b)of the same Act.
“That you, Mohammed Bello Adoke, on or about the 16th of September 2013, in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did cause to be made a structured cash payment in 22 tranches of a sum of money totalling N80,000,000.00 (Eighty million naira) into your Unity Bank Plc Account No. 0020153263, which sums you knew was part of an unlawful act, to wit: the payment of an amount exceeding stated threshold amounts outside a financial institution, intending to conceal the origins of the said funds, contrary to Section 15 (2 )(a) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 as amended and punishable under Section 15 (3) of the same Act.