Court acquits Stephen Oronsaye, 2 others from N2bn fraud suit

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, has discharged and acquitted former Head of Service of the Federation, Stephen Oronsaye, on the N2 billion fraud suit against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The presiding Judge of the High Court, Justice Inyang Ekwo, delivering judgment, held that the prosecution failed to provide enough evidence to warrant a conviction.
The prosecution of Oronsaye, together with the Managing Director of Fredrick Hamilton Global Services Limited, Osarenkhoe Afe, commenced in 2015, as they face 49-count charges bordering on fraud allegation. They pleaded not guilty to teh charges.
The EFCC later amended the charges, separating the sections involving former head of Presidential Pension Task Force, Abdulrasheed Maina.
The EFCC, thereafter, charged Maina in separate suit, and he was convicted and sentenced to eight years imprisonment in November 2021.
The EFCC charged Oronsaye and three companies – Cluster Logistic Limited; Kangolo Dynamic Cleaning Limited, and Drew Investment & Construction Company Limited.
The Commission alleged that Orosanye and others used inflated biometrics enrollment contracts, collective allowances and other schemes to siphon money from accounts containing pensioners’ funds.
The commission presented a report of the Auditor-General of the Federation on federal government’s pension accounts which indicted Oronsaye and others of wrongdoing.
The court, in its judgement, gave Oronsaye and others clean bill and discharged and acquitted them, according.