THE Supreme Court on Friday ordered a former Senate President, Chief Adolphus Wabara, to return to an Abuja High Court to face trial over an alleged N55 million bribe he allegedly received from the Ministry of Education to approve a budget in its favour.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) had arraigned Wabara and four others on April 11, 2005 at the Abuja High Court for allegedly obtaining money to facilitate easy passage of the budget of the Federal Ministry of Education in 2005.
They were accused of allegedly committing offences contrary to sections 9(1) (a); 17(a); 23(2); 26(1) and punishable under Section 8(1); 9(1) (b); 17(c); 23(3) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000.
Other accused persons are a former Minister of Education, Prof. Fabian Osuji, Senator Ibrahim AbdulAzeez, Senator Azuta Mbata and Garba Matazu. Two other suspects (Senators Emmanuel Okpede and Badamosi Maccido) have died and their names struck out of the charge sheet.
The accused had earlier prayed the trial Judge to quash the charges against them. However, Justice Husseini Muktar refused the request on November 10, 2005.
Dissatisfied, three of the accuse persons —- Wabara, AbdulAzeez and Osuji —- approached the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division to challenge the judgment of the High Court.
On June 2, 2010, the appellate court quashed the 15-count charge brought against the trio by the ICPC and let them off the hook, causing ICPC to head to the Supreme Court to challenge the verdict.
In a unanimous decision delivered by Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad, the apex court set aside the judgement of the Court of Appeal which quashed the charge against the accused persons and breathed life into the earlier decision of the trial court. It ordered the remittance of the case file to the Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory High Court for expeditious trial.
The Guardian
Bribery is such a big shame to this country.it is becoming a habit