EFCC arraigns 2 federal civil servants for alleged N20m job scam

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned two top federal civil servants, Tomoloipre Tarigha and Ayooluwa Nuga, before Justice Goodluck of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court sitting in Maitama, Abuja, on a 12-count charge bordering on conspiracy, obtaining by false pretence and forgery.

Tarigha, a staff in the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, and his co-accused allegedly conspired to defraud their victims to the tune of N20million under the pretext of securing employments for them in the federal civil service.

The offence contravenes Section 1 (1) (a) and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.

The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charge.

In view of their plea, counsel to EFCC, S. Ugwuegbulam asked the court for a date for the commencement of trial.

Having not filed any application for bail, the defence counsel, K. Asunogie, prayed the court to remand the defendants in the EFCC custody to enable him have access to them this evening and “perfect what needed to be done on their behalf”.

Ugwuegbulam objected saying, “the proper thing to do is to remand the suspects in prison custody, pending formal application for bail.”

Justice O. Goodluck directed that the accused persons be remanded in Kuje prison and adjourned the matter to May 9th, 2017 for hearing.

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