Former Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) registrar Dibu Ojerinde has reopened talks with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for an out-of-court settlement of the N5.2 billion fraud case instituted against him, both sides said Wednesday.
This comes just weeks after the trial judge ordered him to open his defence and two and a half years after the first settlement talks failed.
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Defence lawyer Eteya Ogana was the first to raise the issue at the resumed hearing in the trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday.
Mr Ogana told trial judge Obiora Egwuatu that the defence was meant to open its case, but for the need to give the settlement talks a chance.
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“There is a development, an intervention, which parties are exploring to see if the matter can be administratively settled,” Mr Ogana said, requesting a long adjournment to allow time to conclude talks.
Lesie Iheduru, who appeared for the prosecution, confirmed the development and did not oppose the request for adjournment.
The judge adjourned the matter until 20 October for a report on the status of the settlement talks or, failing that, for the defence to open its case.
Mr Ojerinde, a professor, served as registrar of the National Examinations Council from 1999 to 2007, before become the JAMB Registrar, a position he held between 2007 and 2016.
In July 2021, ICPC charged him with 18 counts of diverting N5.2 billion in public funds, abuse of office, and conferring corrupt advantages on himself while heading both examination bodies.
He previously made an unsuccessful attempt to settle the matter out of court.
The earlier settlement moves broke down in February 2022, paving the way for the ICPC to call its first prosecution witness after some wait to see the negotiation through.
After ICPC’s finished presenting its case, calling all its prosecution witnesses and tendering documentary evidence, Mr Ojerinde filed a no-case submission to ask the court to dismiss the charges on the grounds that the commmission failed to prove any case against him.
The judge dismissed the no-case submission last month, insisting that he had case to answer, and ordering him to open his defence Wednesday (16 July).
The defence resumed negotiation with the prosecution following the ruling.
Mr Ojerinde faces another set of charges alongside his children also before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
In the 17 charges, the ICPC alleged that the former JAMB boss conspired with three of his children (Oluwaseun Ojerinde, Olumide Ojerinde, and Adebayo Ojerinde) to sell off property worth $150,000 after it had been forfeited to the federal government by a court order.
The property is located at House No. 4 Ahomko Drive, Achimota Phase 2, Accra, Ghana.
The prosecution also accused Mr Ojerinde of incorporating companies and taking up simultaneous appointments as Chairman and Director, while being a public officer on full-time appointment as Registrar/Chief Executive of National Examinations Council (NECO), Minna and the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Bwari, Abuja.
ICPC said this was despite that Mr Ojerinde knew “very well that the Code of Conduct for Public Officers forbids public officers from engaging in private business other than farming or participating in shareholding of joint stock companies”.
ICPC had in 2020 obtained a court order for the confiscation of various assets, including schools, filling stations, and houses traced to Mr Ojerinde.
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