'Scammers' warned off bribery
2004-02-11 13:53
Abuja - The judge overseeing Nigeria's biggest ever "419 fraud" trial on Wednesday warned five defendants accused of duping a Brazilian bank out of $242m not to bribe court staff.
"I got some information that somebody was trying to go around with money, claiming to know the clerk of this court and other personalities. Under no condition should money be passed around in this case," Chief Justice Lawal Gumi told the court.
"This situation should not surface under any condition whatever. Because of the nature of this case and the kind of personalities involved, the accused persons should be properly guided," he warned the defence team.
Responding to the allegation, defence counsel Adegboyega Awomolo said: "We will not be part of anything that will bring scandal to the administration of justice in this country."
Gumi adjourned the case for a week until February 18 to allow the prosecution more time to prepare counter-motions to oppose the defendants' application to be freed on bail.
Nigeria's anti-graft agency hopes the case will serve as proof that President Olusegun Obasanjo's government has at last begun to tackle the country's notorious "419" barons, named after the section of the criminal code prohibiting advanced fee fraud.
Huge sums of money
All five suspects, four men and a woman, have pleaded not guilty to a string of charges relating to a plot in which huge sums of money were siphoned out of a Brazilian bank into foreign accounts by an employee who had been duped by a Nigeria-based gang.
The Brazilian bank later collapsed. Emmanuel Ofolue, Emmanuel Nwude, Amaka Anajemba, Obum Osakwe and Nzeribe Okoli face a total of 86 counts of seeking fraudulent payments and 15 bribery charges related to the case.
Tens of millions of businesses and households around the world have received faxes or e-mails from Nigerians masquerading as corrupt officials or the sons and daughters of deceased dictators, offering shares in hidden fortunes in exchange for simple administrative assistance.
Victims are sucked in with promises of fabulous wealth, then tricked into supplying bank account details or advance legal fees. International law enforcement agencies believe that billions of dollars have been siphoned out of foreign banks by this method.