EFCC disowns lawyer prosecuting Stella Oduah

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Tuesday, July 18, disowned a lawyer, Ibrahim Mohammed, who filed forgery charges in the name of the anti-graft agency against a former Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah.

Mohammed had filed an eight-count charge against the ex-minister bordered on forgery of National Youth Service Corps certificate. After Justice James Omotoso of the federal high court in Abuja noticed some flaws in the court process, he queried the lawyer who admitted that he erroneously filed the charges in the name of EFCC.

Counsel for the EFCC, Helen Okonofun, who appeared before Justice James Omotoso stated that Mohammed, a Superintendent of Police, was not mandated to file any criminal charge against Oduah or prosecute her in any criminal matter.

Okonofun noted that the police lawyer had been investigated by the EFCC as ordered by the judge last week, and findings would be filed at the court registry and be made available to the court thereafter.

She revealed that Mohammed was initially with the EFCC but was redeployed from the agency to the police headquarters on November 4, 2022 and had nothing to do with the EFCC since then.

Justice Omotoso thereafter fixed October 4, 2023, for the EFCC to formally make the report of the findings available to the court.