The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday, November 23, 2010 docked four accused persons at a Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Abuja over the N17.5million euro Siemens bribery scam.

They were arraigned before Justice Danlami Senchi on a 16 count charge bordering on the acceptance of sponsorship of trips, payments of medical expenses and other forms of financial inducements by Siemens while they were occupying public offices.

The accused persons are: a former Executive Director of PHCN, Maigada Shuaibu; a former Permanent Secretary in the federal ministry of power and steel, Mahmood Sadiq Mohammed; a former General Manager in NITEL, Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Ossai and an ex-CEO of MTEL, Edwin Moore.

At the arraignment which was originally scheduled to hold on Monday 22nd November, 2010, prosecution counsel, Godwin Obla, told the court that the amendment to the charges followed a negotiated settlement reached between the Federal Government and the accused and that additional charges of conspiracy were now included in the charges imputed to the accused persons.

One of the defence counsel, Ahmed Uwais, asked for time to study the new charges. The other three counsels aligned with Uwais and also asked for time to discuss with their clients and respond appropriately.

But when the matter eventually came up for plea taking on Tuesday, all the four accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges.
All the defence counsel made oral application for bail relying on Section 341 sub-Section 2 of the Criminal Procedure Code and Section 36 sub 5 of the 1999 Constitution.

The counsel argued that the issue of bail was at the discretion of the court even as they pleaded for liberal bail terms for their clients.
Justice Senchi thereafter granted the four accused bail on self recognition alongside a condition that they must seek permission from the court and the state before travelling outside the country.

The Judge also cautioned that if any of the accused persons failed to appear at the next adjourned date, his bail relief would automatically be quashed. The case was then adjourned to the 31st of January and 1st of February 2011 for continuation of trial.

It would be recalled that the EFCC had on October 18, 2010, filed charges against the former permanent secretary in the Federal Ministry of Power and Steel, Mahmood Sadiq Mohammed and 12 others. The suspects were to face a 35-count charge.

Siemens, a German firm, which later agreed to pay a fine of about N7 billion to the federal government was said have paid over 17.5 million euro to bribe some Nigerian officials between 2001 and 2004.

The settlement agreement led to the withdrawal of charges against Siemens AG, Siemens Nig Ltd, Eduard Seidel, Klaus-Peter Gilbert, Waclaw Lukowicz and Schroeter Jochen, all 1st to 6th accused in the initial charges filed.