Jumoke Akinjide begs court to recover N650m from EFCC

A former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Jumoke Akinjide, has urged the court to compel the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to return to her a sum of N650m.

According to her, the anti-graft agency took the money from her under by force.

The EFCC is prosecuting Akinjide for an alleged fraud of N650m before the Federal High Court in Lagos.

The anti-graft agency alleged that she collected N650m from a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, in the build-up to the 2015 general elections.

However, in a fresh application by her lawyer, Chief Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN), Akinjide said she had already been coerced by the EFCC to return the N650m.

Against that background, she prayed the court to quash the charges against her for being an abuse of court processes.

She went further to aver that no prima facie case of fraud was established against her in the proof of evidence filed before the court by the EFCC.

Akinjide said contrary to the claim by the EFCC that N650m collected from her were part of Diezani’s alleged loot, the money was actually from the fundraiser organised by the Peoples Democratic Party to fund the re-election campaign of then President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice-President Namadi Sambo.