A MELODRAMA was played out yesterday as a woman, who claims to be the wife of Gen. Shehu Yar'Adua, the late elder brother of President Umar Musa Yar'adual was arraigned along with one Linda Anyanwu over allegations of fraud and attempt to defraud the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
EFCC docks Yar’Adua’s "wife": Hajiya Asabe Shehu Musa Yar’Adua (right) with Linda Anyanwu (left) charge to court by EFCC for false pretence at Federal High Court, Abuja.
The woman identified as Asabe Willaims alias Asabe Shehu Musa Yar'Adua and Anyanwu pleaded not guilty to the three-count charge of fraud. They were remanded in Suleja Prisons by the trial Judge, Abubakar Talba till June 22, this year when their bail applications would be heard.
Asabe had told the court that she is the wife of the late former number two-man and rejected the alias 'Asabe Shehu Musa Yar'Adua' appellation attached to the charge sheet.
The prosecutor, Aso Larry-Peters had obtained the leave of the court for the charges against the accused persons to be read and for their pleas to be taken.
Counsel to Asabe, Adamu Williams had after the two accused persons had pleaded not guilty to the charges, urged the court to admit his client to bail. "May I respectfully apply for the bail of the 1st accused person, I recognise that this is a court of records and by the rules of the court, bail applications ought to be brought formally.
"It is in recognition of this that we have filed a written application for bail and we are prepared to move the said motion," he added.
But Larry-Peters told the court that "the learned defence counsel is familiar with the rules of the court, he has just served me the motion less than 10 minutes ago and has raised very serious averments that I have to study and respond to. We would be opposing his moving the application."
Ruling on the matter, Talba said the prosecution was entitled to the mandatory 48 hours within which to respond to the issues raised in the motion. He remarked that due to the court's congested programmes for next week, the matter could only be taken on June 22 and therefore adjourned the matter to that date.
The charges against the accused include:
That you, Joy Asabe Williams alias Hajia Asabe Shehu Musa Yar'Adua and Linda Anyanwu on May 13, 2009 in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of the High Court of the Federal High Court conspired among yourselves to collect money from the Comptroller-General of Customs under false pretence and thereby committed an Advance Fee Fraud contrary to section 1(3) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Act;
That you Linda Anyanwu on May 13, 2009 in Abuja, attempted to collect money from the Comptroller-General of Customs under false pretence, an offence punishable under the EFCC Act.
That you Joy Asabe Williams alias Hajia Asabe Shehu Musa Yar'Adua on between January 1, and May 13, 2009 in Abuja falsely presented yourself as the wife of the late Gen. Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, which you know to be false with the intention to collect money from the Comptroller-General of Customs and thereby an offence punishable under section 1(3) of the EFCC Act.
The accused persons were first arrested by operatives of the State Security Services (SSS) on May 13 and later transferred to the custody of the EFCC on May 22, 2009.
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