By Edoamaowo Udeme
Former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Vincent Ogbulafor and two others will on July 24, 2014 know their fate, in a corruption case filed against them by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
Justice Ishaq Bello, of FCT High Court in Abuja, has reserved that date for his judgment .
Ogbulafor, former Minister of Special Duties, along with Emeka Ebilah and Jude Nwokoro, are facing a 17-count charge of conspiracy and award of fictitious contracts worth N107 million.
ICPC had alleged that Ogbulafor, as Minister of State for Special Duties in 2001, colluded with other two to float three fictitious companies with which they allegedly perpetrated the fraud.
They were alleged to have used Henrichiko Nig. Ltd, DHL Consultants and Chekwas Industries, to siphon N82.6 million; N11.5 million and N6.2 million, respectively, in 2001.
The former PDP Chairman was alleged to have used his position as head of National Economic Intelligence Committee (NEIC) a body set up to authenticate debts owed contractors, to okay several forged documents as genuine.
He was alleged to have relied on these forged documents to certify that the three fake companies successfully executed jobs worth N104 million.
Ogbulafor was also alleged to have collected kickbacks of N2 million and N28 million from Ebilah.
The offences leveled against the accused persons are said to have contravened Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act, 2000.
Ogbulafor had admitted recommending the second accused to former President Olusegun Obasanjo for membership of the NEIC in July 2010.
However, he denied appointing Ebilah as the secretary of the committee after it was reconstituted.
Ogbulafor told the court that he was directed to reconstitute NEIC by Obasanjo in July 2010.
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