Innoson urges due process in alleged fraud case against boss

A vehicle manufacturing firm, Innoson Nigeria Ltd, has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to follow the due process of the law in prosecuting the alleged fraud charge against its chairman, Chief Innocent Chukwuma, at the Lagos High Court.

The firm, in a statement by its Head of Corporate Communications, Cornel Osigwe, noted with regrets the activities of some officials of the anti-graft agency, who he said, are hell bent or sent to destroy Innoson boss.

According to him, the striking out of the trumped-up fraud charge filled by the EFCC at the Lagos State High Court on Wednesday, October 10, 2018 by Justice Olusola Williams was not because Chief Innocent Chukwuma failed to appear before the court but because EFCC failed to convince the court that it properly served Chukwuma court papers (the charge) before seeking for an order for bench warrant/declaration of wanted.

The judge while striking the case out, he stressed, advised EFCC to get its acts together before coming to court.Osigwe, therefore, questioned the decision of the anti-graft agency to rush to the press by announcing its determination to arrest Chukwuma to face fraud charges in court.

“The EFCC spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, in a statement on Wednesday shortly after Justice Olusola Williams struck out the case of fraud instituted against Chief Innocent Chukwuma, announced that the agency would arrest Chief Chukwuma’.“Why the rush to the media by EFCC to publicly announce the arrest of Innoson after it has its trumped-up case struck out by the court? he said.

“EFCC should learn to follow due process of law in handling its prosecution. It is on record that EFCC never served Innoson any court papers nor extended any letter of invitation to him. “Therefore, why the campaign of calumny in the media suggesting that Innoson has been evading arrest.“Again, EFCC should understand that there is no such charge by it against Innoson in any court in Nigeria, the previous one having been struck out,” he stressed.