N2.2bn fraud: Court grants FG’s request for Supreme Court registrar’s arraignment

A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has granted a request by the Federal government for the arraignment of the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Mr. Ahmed Saleh and two other officials of the court on a nine-counts bordering on gratification and diversion of N2.2 billion belonging to the apex court.

The F.G, through the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), had on November 3, charged Saleh alongside Muhammed Abdulrahman Sharif and Rilwanu Lawal with the offences of receiving gratifications totalling N74.4m from private contractors providing services to the Supreme Court between 2009 and 2016.

Although, the arraignment of the defendants was scheduled for Wednesday before Justice A.B Mohammed, neither the accused persons nor their lawyers were present in court.

It was learnt that the defendants was yet to be served with the charges as of Wednesday morning.

The development forced the prosecuting counsel, Mrs. Hajara Yusuf, to ask for an adjournment to enable the prosecution to produce them in court.

She said: “We were made to understand that the matter was assigned to this court just yesterday morning.

“We will be asking for an adjournment to enable us to produce the defendants in court.”

The judge in granting Yusuf’s request then fixed November 17 for the arraignment of the accused.