Court Grants ICPC Leave To Arrest Ogbulafor

ABUJA, April 26, (THEWILL) - A Federal High Court this morning granted the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) leave to arrest the National Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Prince Vincent Ogbulafor if he fails to appear before it next Monday for allegedly stealing N104 million of public funds.

Justice Ishaq Bello at the opening of hearing on the 16-count suit filed against the PDP Chairman and four others, ordered Ogbulafor to present himself in Court next Monday but granted the ICPC leave to apply for his warrant of arrest and bring him to the court if he fails to appear on the fixed date.

The ICPC is accusing the PDP Chairman of conniving with  the four others, Emeka Ebilah, Henry Ikoh, Jude Nwokoro and Emmanuel Bosah of using fictitious companies to siphon the money from Government coffers when he was Minister of Special Duties in 2001.

The court held that that Ogbulafor has a case to answer and granted the anti-graft body the leave to go ahead with the prosecution and to arrest him if he fails to comply with court orders.

ICPC in the suit accused the defendants of using three phony companies to siphon N82.6 million, N11.5 million and N6.2 million respectively.

The body held that Ogbulafor who it said got a total of N30 million from the fraudulent deals compromised his office as the Head of the National Economic Intelligence Committee (NEIC) set up to verify debts owed local contractors.

He is alleged to have connived with the other accused to forge documents to show that the three companies executed the contracts worth a total of N104 million.