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Adelani Adepegba

Sixteen months after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission vowed to appeal the conviction of a former governor of Edo State, Lucky Igbinedion, on one-count charge of money laundering, corruption and embezzlement, the agency has not acted on the processes it filed on the matter, SUNDAY PUNCH investigations have gathered.

former Edo State Governor, Chi

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Justice Abdul Kafarati of the Federal High Court, Enugu had on December 18, 2008 found the former governor guilty on a one-count charge after he entered into a plea-bargain with the EFCC which led to the dropping of the other 190 charges of corruption and financial impropriety preferred against him.

Igbinedion did not go to jail as he was merely fined N3.6m which drew criticism from members of the public particularly the Nigeria Bar Association.

The commission, which dragged Igbinedion alongside four companies in which he had interests, had rejected the judgment, and insisted on filing an appeal against the conviction.

It said in a statement that it "would rather go the long way of prosecution than to settle for a plea-bargain verdict that has no bite or will not serve any deterrence purpose. The outcome of the exercise at the court in Enugu however fell short of our expectation.

"It is believed that the essence of a plea bargain is not only for suspects to forfeit the proceeds of crime but that such should go with a sentence which will serve as deterrent."

Subsequently, the agency claimed it had filed an appeal on the matter.

But findings by our correspondent last Wednesday indicated that no action has been taken on the processes filed in the appeal against the court judgment as checks at both the registries of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, Enugu showed that nothing has been done on the appeal filed by the anti-graft agency.

Following the inaction on the matter, the case file has already been taken to the archive where old case files are kept by court officers.

Attempts to get the comment of the Head, Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Femi Babafemi, was not successful as calls and a text message to his GSM telephone were not responded to.

But the man who led the EFCC prosecution that secured the conviction, Mr. Rotimi Jacob, told our correspondent that he personally filed the appeal, but said he did not know why no action had been taken on the suit.

"I remember that I filed the appeal immediately after the conviction in early 2009, but I don't know why no action had been taken on the suit. What I heard was that they are compiling the record on the matter, but I can't say why this has not been concluded one year after the appeal was filed," Jacob said over the telephone.

The EFCC, which had filed a 191-count charge of corruption, money laundering and embezzlement against Igbinedion and the companies made a volte face a day before the judgment by dropping the charges.

Instead, it filed an amended 24-count charge but arraigned him on just one-count.

Igbinedion, who had earlier pleaded not guilty to the 191-count charge, admitted being liable to the one-count charge in which he said that he neglected to make a declaration of his interest in the account No. 41240113983110 with GTBank in the declaration of Assets Form of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, an offence punishable under section 27(3) of the EFCC Act, 2004.

The second accused, Kiva Corporation, was convicted on two of the 23-count charge preferred against it and ordered to pay N500m fine and to forfeit its landed property to the Federal Government.

The property include a parcel of land at Asokoro, Abuja, a detached building on two plots comprising four-bedroom and two outer houses in GRA, Benin, and a storey building in Benin.

The prosecution had told the court that the former governor failed to disclose in his assets declaration form that he had N3,579, 524.16 in GTBank and tendered five exhibits, including the certified true copy of the assets declaration form, the statement of account of Kiva Corporation which showed how monies were paid into the GTBank account; and payment vouchers from the Edo State Government House showing how monies were withdrawn and lodged into the account of the company.

The index of payment received from the Government House showing withdrawals and payments of money to the company was also tendered.

Jacob had while proving the case prayed the court to consider the ingredients under count two and three where payments totaling N30m was made to Kiva Corporation on January 10, 2007 and another N70m paid to the same company on May 17, 2007 by one Pat Eboigbodin, an Edo State Government official which showed that the company