CCT: Orubebe knows fate 30 June

CCT: Orubebe knows fate 30 June

Thursday, June 2, 2016 7:37 pm


Orubebe

Orubebe

The Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) will deliver judgment on 30 June on the one count charge of false declaration of assets preferred against former Niger Delta Minister, Godsday Orubebe.

The Tribunal gave the date for the judgment after the former minister who had earlier pleaded not guilty to the amended charge of false asset declaration on March 8 closed his defence.

Orubebe had in his defence told the Tribunal on Thursday that he did not declare Plot 2057 in Asokoro for which he is being tried on the count charge of false assets declaration because the land was no longer his own as at the time he was leaving office in 2011.

Orubebe who  was led in evidence by his lawyer, Larry Selekowei told the Tribunal that he had ceded the land to his then landlord for a debt of N10 million,  two years unpaid rent. The former minister insisted that he does not own any property which was not declared in his asset declaration form submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).

The former minister said the land was allocated to him by government. He identified the landlord as Akinwunmi Ajibola who was also in court to confirm the testimony of the former minister.

Orubebe told the Tribunal presided over by Mr. Danladi Umar that since the land was no longer his own, he would have committed a crime if he had declared it in his assets declaration form.

He added that he had also handed the Certificate of Occupancy for the land to the landlord  before he left office.

The former minister therefore asked the Tribunal  to dismiss the charge against him because he had not breached any law concerning the property.

While collaborating Orubebe’s testimony, Ajibola confirmed to the Tribunal that he was the former landlord of the minister and that the minister owed him N10 million for in unpaid rent.

The witness who said  he is also a real estate developer said Orubebe had ceded the land to him to offset the debt with the Certificate of Occupancy handed over to him at the end of the transaction.

Under cross-examination by the prosecutor, Mohammed Diri, Aajibola however said he did not register the Power of Attorney and the Deed of Assignment for the land because it was  empty land in the bush and he was not ready to develop it at that time.

But he added that he discovered that there has been an enchroachment on the land when eventually he wanted to develop it.  Ajibola said he had entered into a negotiation with the company that encroached on the property.

The single count  against Orubebe reads: “That you, Godsday Peter Orubebe on or about June 29, 2011 while being a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in charge of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this honourable tribunal, did make a false declaration of assets to the Code of Conduct Bureau when you failed to declare Plot 2057, Asokoro District, Abuja on assumption of office on September 26, 2007 and on leaving office (at the end of your tenure) on June 29, 2011 and you hereby commit an offence contrary to section 15 of Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act Cap 15 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and punishable under section 23(2) of the same Act.”

 


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