2022 has been an intriguing year with a mixed bag of good, bad and ugly events in Nigeria’s sociopolitical and economic space.
Part of those events are some criminal cases involving big personalities in the country. As the year winds down, Daily Trust highlights five big criminal cases that dominated many discussions in 2022.
Eno Ubi Otu
In August, 2022 the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) ‘arrested’ and grilled the Director, Finance and Account of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr. Eno Ubi Otu, over alleged diversion of over N25 billion tax remittances.
Otu’s arrest was part of a larger investigation of the forensic audit report of the NDDC.
Ahmed Idris
In July 2022 a High Court sitting in Abuja ordered the remand of the former Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) Ahmed Idris, in Kuje prison over his alleged involvement in the illegal diversion of public funds to the tune of about N109 billion.
The EFCC said Idris and his co-defendants are indicted on a 14-count charge of stealing and criminal breach of trust to the tune of N109.5 billion.
Idris was arraigned alongside Godfrey Olusegun Akindele and Mohammed Kudu Usman, and Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited.
Idris was alleged to have received a gratification from one Olusegun Akindele, worth N15.1bn, in exchange for accelerating the payment of 13% derivation to the nine oil-producing states in the federation.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, thereafter suspended the Accountant General of the Federation over the allegations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that he laundered over N80 billion.
The EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, recently said the anti-graft agency had recovered over N30bn from the suspended AGF.
Stamp Duty
The alleged stamp duty controversy has continued to raise some dust with the federal government and the member representing the Kazaure, Roni, Gwiwa, Yankwashi Constituency of Jigawa State, Gudaji Kazaure trading argument on the matter.
During an interview with journalists in December in Abuja, Gudaji had said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and some other agencies were making efforts to frustrate investigations done to the recovery of N89 trillion stamp.
But the Presidency, through the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, dismissed the allegation of the missing N89.09 trillion stamp duty, describing the Committee on the Reconciliation and Recovery of All Stamp Duties as illegal.
Shehu said: “In response to press enquiries on the issues raised in a viral video by Hon. Gudaji Kazaure, I wish to state as follow: In the first instance, the committee on the alleged loss of stamp duty funds he is talking about is an illegal committee, it was dissolved on directive of the President.
“Anyone familiar with our constitution will find it curious that a member of the Parliament is the secretary of an Executive Committee.”
Abba Kyari
In March 2022 the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) filed charges against suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Abba Kyari.
Kyari alongside six others were charged with drug trafficking.
Kyari was declared wanted by the NDLEA after it obtained a video footage of him negotiating a drug deal with its investigators, which led to his suspension.
The other defendants in the case are members of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Inspector-General of Police, ACP Sunday J. Ubia, ASP Bawa James, Insp. Simon Agirigba and Insp. John Nuhu.
Others are the suspected drug traffickers that were arrested at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu, Chibunna Patrick Umeibe and Emeka Alphonsus Ezenwanne.
Hushpuppi
Fraudster and social media influencer Ramon Abbas, popularly known as Hushpuppi, has been jailed for his role in an international fraud syndicate.
Abass, who flaunted his wealthy lifestyle on his Instagram page which had 2.8 million followers, was arrested in Dubai and flown to the US where the judge of a court in Los Angeles convicted him in November 2022 and ordered him to pay $1,732,841 (£1,516,182) in restitution to two fraud victims.
According to court documents in California, Abbas pleaded guilty in April 2021 to one count of conspiracy to engage in money laundering admitted to attempting to steal more than $1.1m from someone who wanted to fund a new children’s school in Qatar.
The document added that also admitted to “several other cyber and business email compromise schemes that cumulatively caused more than $24 million in losses”, the US justice department said.
Hushpuppi will serve his sentence of 135 months in a federal prison.
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