Lukman Olabiyi
Two legal practitioners, Mr. Cosmas Okpara and Mr. Johi Icheka, who were erroneously listed as co-defendants of Mr. Kenny Martins in the alleged N7.74billion Police Equipment Fund (PEF) fraud, have denied their alleged involvement in the said trial.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting Martins, as the coordinator of the PEF, for allegedly conniving with three others to perpetrate the alleged fraud.
However, the two lawyers through their solicitor, Paul Ekwueme, from the chambers of Petphil & Associates, denied the report published on Tuesday, April 28, naming them as co-defendants before Justice Mohammed Talba and currently before Justice Modupe Adebiyi of FCT High Court in the charge filed against Martins by EFCC.
In two separate letters with similar contents, dated May 28, the counsel said that Okpara and Icheka were neither arraigned before Justice Mohammed Talba at the commencement of the trial nor arraigned before Justice Modupe Adebiyi of the FCT High Court on January 15, 2020 or any other date upon the order of the Supreme Court remitting the case back to the High Court of the FCT.
He noted that the duo have not at any time been arraigned before any court on account of the said charges forming the subject of the publication, and described them as not only reputable law abiding citizens but legal practitioners of both long and good professional standing in their practices.
In a related development, Martins and Ibrahim Dumuje had earlier denied the report that EFCC is prosecuting them for the alleged embezzlement of the fund.
In a letter to the Managing Director, The Sun Publishing Limited, through their solicitors from the chambers of Ifeanyi Ucheaga & Associates, the duo stated: “This is a blatant lie because the EFCC is not prosecuting Kenny Martins and anyone else for the embezzlement of N7.740,000.000.00 (Seven Billion, Seven Hundred and Forty Million Naira).”
They also stated in the letter that they never “faced any charge before Justice Mohammed Taiba along with joni Icheka and Cosmos Okpara.”
They further denied that they were “charged before Honourable Justice Adebiyi for any role in the forging of Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) documents to facilitate any PEF fraud.