The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday sought to re-arraign three senior officials of the National Assembly before the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Jikwoyi, Abuja, over their alleged involvement in the diversion of N337 million belonging to the legislature.
The defendants are Director of Public Affairs in the Directorate of Special Duties and Parliamentary Security, Aishatu El-Nafaty; a former Permanent Secretary at the National Assembly, Mamud Abubakar, and Deputy Director of Procurement, Igba Joseph.
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The anti-graft agency was set to re-arraign the three on an amended 23 counts of conspiracy, forgery, criminal breach of trust, official corruption and alleged illegal conversion of public funds before a trial judge Muhammed Zubairu.
However, the re-arraignment did not proceed after lawyer to the second defendant, Muhammed Ndayako, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), filed a preliminary objection challenging parts of the amended charge.
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According to a statement shared on Monday by the EFCC spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, the defence lawyer urged the court to strike out counts three, four, five, six, seven and 18 of the indictment dated 8 October 2025.
He argued that they were incompetent and amounted to an attempt to revive counts that had already been quashed by the court in a ruling delivered on 12 May 2025.
Responding, the prosecution lawyer, Francis Usani, faulted the timing of the application, saying he was only served with the objection on Friday, 5 June, despite the defendants having more than a month since the last adjournment to file it.
Mr Usani told the court that although he intended to file a formal response, he urged the court to dismiss the objection for being frivolous and designed to frustrate the re-arraignment proceedings.
He also asked the judge to direct the defendants to take their plea on the amended charge.
Charges
According to the amended charge, the defendants allegedly conspired between 2017 and 2019 to commit criminal breach of trust while serving as public officers in the National Assembly.
One of the counts alleges that Mrs El-Nafaty dishonestly converted N89.87 million entrusted to her from National Assembly management overhead and general services accounts into her personal account domiciled with SunTrust Bank.
The EFCC further accused her of forging receipts purportedly issued by Fazah Integrated Services Limited between 2017 and 2018 to falsely show evidence of payments made, with the intention of using the documents as genuine.
The commission alleged that the offences were committed contrary to relevant provisions of the Penal Code and are punishable under the same law.
During Monday’s proceedings, the first defendant indicated her intention to file a similar preliminary objection.
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Mr Zubairu directed her to file the application within 48 hours and ordered the prosecution to respond accordingly, saying the court would determine the objections in the interest of justice before proceeding with the amended charges.
He subsequently adjourned the matter until 23 September for hearing of the preliminary objections.
The case has been before the court for some time and has witnessed amendments to the original charges as well as legal challenges by the defence.
The latest adjournment means the court will first decide whether the disputed counts can stand before the defendants are called upon to enter fresh pleas.
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