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Atuche,
Wife, Others Arraigned, Remanded in EFCC and Prison Custody
Newsdiaryonline
Tue May 17,2011
The former managing
director of Bank PHB, Mr. Francis
Atuche, his wife Elizabeth and two of their associates were
arraigned before different courts on Tuesday May 17, 2011 by the
Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, and charged with offences bordering on
stealing depositors funds.
While Atuche and Messrs
Lekan Kasali and Femi Ademosun appeared before Justice S.A
Onigbanjo of Ikeja High Court, Mrs. Atuche was arraigned before
Justice Lateefa Okunnu also of Ikeja High Court. While Justice
Onigbanjo ordered that Atuche and his accomplices be remanded in
the custody of the EFCC, Okunnu ordered that his wife be
remanded in prison custody.
Atuche was arraigned twice
in the same court on different charges bordering on stealing. In
the first case, he was arraigned alongside Kasali on a three
count-charge bordering on conspiracy to commit felony and
stealing. According to one of the charges, in August 2008 the
defendants conspired and stole the sum of N3.6billion which they
fraudulently claimed to be a loan to Cogpar Nigeria Limited. A
total of N10.8billion was allegedly transferred to the company
by the accused persons.
Afterwards, Atuche was
again docked along with Femi Ademosun on another charge of
conspiracy and stealing to the tune of N12.6billion.
When the charges were read
to the accused persons, other defendants pleaded not guilty but
Atuche refused to make a plea. When asked to take his plea, he
declared: “I object to the charge” . EFCC lead counsel, Mr. Kemi
phinhero complained about the accused refusal to plead guilty or
not guilty but the trial Judge informed the court that even
though the defendant said he objected to the charge, he has
entered the plea of not guilty for him.
The matter of where the
accused persons would be kept pending the next adjourned date
drew fireworks from counsel to both parties. While lead defence
counsel, Anthony Idigbe, SAN wanted his client remanded in EFCC
custody, the request was vehemently opposed by Kemi Phinhero,
SAN lead prosecution counsel, who pointed out that Atuche had
been sponsoring damaging publications against the EFCC. But the
defence counsel was persistent. “My lord, we have absolute
confidence that the EFCC would take care of the defendants and
we have full confidence in the system,’he pleaded. Phinhero
countered, “ my lord, it is unfair to impose the defendants on
unwilling custodians, the EFCC cell is not meant for awaiting
trial persons, it is the prison custody that is meant for
awaiting trial persons, the only alternative is asylum“. The
Judge however ruled in favour of the defendants that they must
be remanded in the EFCC custody till May 19 when the application
for bail and preliminary objection would be heard.
Mrs. Atuche was not that
lucky, all her lawyers’ effort to persuade Justice Okunnu to
remand her in the EFCC custody failed. She had pleaded not
guilty to the three count charge preferred against her by the
EFCC, where she was alleged to have conspired with her husband
to steal the sum of N5.737billion between November 2007 and
April 2008, property of Bank PHB.
The funds were fraudulently converted proceeds of several
illegal loans which were deployed in the acquisition of
337,500.00 units of Bank PHB shares on behalf of Gazali Yakubu
investment Ltd and EFCD Associates Ltd. She was also accused of
stealing the sum of N2.89billion each in two different
transactions. The trial Judge adjourned the case to May 19 when
the bail application would be heard. The trial will take place
on July 5, 6 and 12.
In a related development,
the trial of the former managing director of Finbank Plc,
Mr.Okey Nwosu and three former executive directors of the bank
has been adjourned to May 20 when all the pending applications,
including application for bail would be heard.
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