ONE of former president Dr Goodluck Jonathan's assistants who is facing corruption charges has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of mounting pressure on him to incriminate former first lady Dame Patience Jonathan.
Waripamo-Owei Dudafa, a former special assistant to Dr Jonathan on domestic matters, has been charged by the EFCC with using four companies to launder cash. However, in a petition to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), he said he was being deliberately punished by the commission because of his loyalty to the former president and his family.
Already, the companies - Pluto Property and Investment Company, Seagate Property Development and Investment Company, Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company and Avalon Global Property Development Company, have pleaded guilty to a 15-count charge brought against them. Also, Murtala Abubakar, a bureau de change operator, said he received a total of N1.6bn from Mr Dudafa through five companies between 2013 and 2015.
However, Mr Dudafa accused the anti-graft agency of trying to perpetually detain him despite meeting the bail conditions granted him by two federal judges. EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, however, denied Mr Dudafa’s claims, saying he is not aware of any petition being written.
Mr Uwujaren said: “I don’t know the petition you are talking about but whatever petition there is, the commission does not force anybody to do anything. His application for bail is before a competent court of jurisdiction and matters before the court I don’t comment on them."
Mr Dudafa had said: “My only sin is that I have refused to yield to the commission’s pressure to write false statements to incriminate the former first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan. Despite meeting all the herculean bail conditions as ordered by the two courts, the commission has failed to fulfil its part, by verifying all the title documents of the sureties."
In his petition dated November 4, Mr Dudafa claimed that the Federal High Court granted him bail in the sum of N500m with three sureties in like sum. In addition, the court ruled that the sureties shall deposit three years tax clearance certificates which shall be verified as genuine by the EFCC and Mr Dudafa would deposit his international passport with the registry of the court.
According to Mr Dudafa, various attempts by his lawyer to ensure that the commission deposited his international travel passport with the court since he was admitted to bail had been unsuccessful. He further accused the EFCC of a blatant refusal to verify all the title documents provided by his sureties at the Land Registry for over two months in relations to the bail conditions granted him.
His petition read that from the above facts, it has become obvious that the EFCC is desperate to keep him perpetually in prison with the ultimate aim of killing him despite the fact that his deteriorating state of health has been made known through a medical report dated August 29, 2016 and issued by the Nigerian Prison Service. Mr Dudafa appealed to the Human Rights Commission to intervene in a clear case of the arbitrary abuse of power and flagrant disregard to court order and breach of his fundamental rights.
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