A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has fixed December 4 for the re-arraignment of a former governor of Enugu State, Dr Chimaroke Nnamani.
Nnamani is to be re-arraigned before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged money laundering of N4.5 billion, an offence he was said to have committed during while serving as governor between 1999 and 2007.
Justice Chuka Obiozor fixed the date after a lawyer to the former governor pleaded with the court to adjourn the case as his client was not in the country to attend Thursday’s proceedings.
The prosecuting counsel was also absent having written a letter to the court to seek an adjournment.
Nnamani’s re-arraignment comes 10 years after the former governor was first arraigned alongside his aide, Sunday Anyaogu, and six firms.
In the charges, he was alleged to have conspired with the other defendants to launder various statutory allocations of some local government areas of Enugu State.
The local governments listed include Aninri, Enugu South, Agwu, Igbo Etiti and Isi Uzor.
Specifically, Nnamani was alleged to have stolen N1.4 billion from the Excess Crude Oil Funds allocated to the local governments in the state.
The EFCC also alleged that the former governor, through the help of one Chinero Nwigwe, who is now at large, fraudulently transferred millions of dollars of the state’s funds to his personal accounts in the United States of America.
The trial had been stalled for several years owing largely to the various applications filed by the former governor, many of which had to do with travelling abroad for medical treatment.
