The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday failed to re-arraign three officials of the National Assembly over an alleged N337 million fraud following a preliminary objection by one of the defendants.
The defendants are Aishatu Bappa El-Nafaty, Director of Public Affairs in the Directorate of Special Duties and Parliamentary Security; Mamud Alhaji Abubakar, former Permanent Secretary in the National Assembly; and Igba Ityoakura Joseph, Deputy Director of Procurement.
The trio were scheduled to be re-arraigned before Justice Muhammed Zubairu of the FCT High Court in Jikwoyi, Abuja.
The EFCC had filed an amended 23-count charge bordering on conspiracy, forgery, criminal breach of trust, official corruption and alleged diversion of N337,062,350 belonging to the National Assembly.
The re-arraignment could not proceed after Muhammed Ndayako, counsel to Abubakar, filed a preliminary objection challenging portions of the amended charge.
Ndayako urged the court to strike out counts three, four, five, six, seven and 18 of the amended charge dated October 8, 2025.
The lawyer argued that the counts sought to revive charges that had already been quashed by the court in a ruling delivered on May 12, 2025.
In response, Francis Usani, counsel to the EFCC, said the objection was served on the prosecution only on June 5, shortly before the scheduled re-arraignment.
Usani said the defence had more than a month from the last adjourned date to file the application and urged the court to dismiss the objection.
He described the application as frivolous, incompetent and intended to frustrate the re-arraignment proceedings, stressing that the court should direct the defendants to take their plea on the amended charges.
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