Former Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah, has finally responded to the felony charge filed against her by the federal government.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that the eight-count charge, filed on June 26, 2021, at a Federal High Court in Abuja, was tagged FHC/ABJ/CR/275/23.
The charges allege that Oduah lied on oath, which is considered a felony.
It is claimed that the former minister made a false declaration that her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate was missing to support her eligibility to contest in elections and occupy political offices.
Reacting, Oduah’s lawyer, James Onoja, recently released a press statement claiming that his client was neither served with a notice of the suit nor invited for questioning. The statement states that Oduah only found out about the charges through social media.
“First and foremost, our client is not aware of the charge,” Onoja said.
“No investigation of any kind was carried out, whether by the Nigerian police or any security agency. She was not invited to make any statement by any of the security agencies.”
Oduah’s lawyer argued that the suit may be politically motivated and that the charges were a gender-based political attack on his client.
He also described the entire process as a “game plan to suffer our client and create confusion.”
The senior advocate queried the professional competence of the two lawyers – Ochogwu Ogbe and Ibrahim Mohammed – who filed the suit, stating that they failed to affix their practising seals as stipulated by the profession.
Furthermore, he pointed out that it was unclear whether the case was being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission or the police, as the entity behind the lawsuit had not been properly identified.
At the hearing on Tuesday, Presiding Judge James Omotosho ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate the prosecution counsel in the suit, Ibrahim Mohammed, for the inconsistencies in the charge filed against Oduah.
As previously reported by this newspaper, he signed the charge as a member of the legal and prosecution department of the EFCC but identified himself as the head of the inspector-general of police (IGP) monitoring unit, Nigeria police force headquarters, Abuja, in a written address supporting the case.
