Alleged N1.6bn money laundering: EFCC re-arraigns Bauchi AG, BDC operator

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday re-arraigned Sirajo Jaja, the Accountant-General, Bauchi State, and a Bureau de Change (BDC) operator, Aliyu Abubajar for alleged N1. 63 billion money laundering.

They were re-arraigned on a second amended charge before Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

They, however, pleaded not guilty to the five-count charge.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the EFCC had, on April 7, 2025, arraigned Jaja, Abubakar and his company, Jasfad Resources Enterprise, as 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants respectively.

However, the commission had, on June 17, 2025, re-arraigned Abubakar, trading under the name and style of Jasfad Resources Enterprise, as 1st defendant in the amended charge, and named Jaja as 2nd defendant.

Meanwhile, in the second amended charge, marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/101/2025 dated and filed on Jan. 5, Abubakar (trading under the name and style of Jasfad Resources Enterprise) and Jaja were listed as 1st and 2nd defendants.

Upon resumed hearing, Abba Mohammed, SAN, who appeared for EFCC, informed the court that the commission filed a second amended charge on January 5.

He prayed the court for the defendants to take their plea.

Jaja’s lawyer, Gordy Uche, SAN, told the court that he had filed a motion challenging the competence of the charge.

He urged the court to take his motion before the defendants take their plea.

Mohammed disagreed with Uche’s submission.

He argued that the position of the law is that when an amended charge is filed, it takes precedence over other motions, citing Section 396(2) of Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015.

Besides, he said the prosecution had a witness in court and that the witness had been coming to court for the third time.

Justice Egwuatu then ordered that the latest charge be read to the defendants to take their plea.

After the not guilty plea, 1st defendant’s lawyer, Gordy Uche, SAN, and 2nd defendant’s counsel, Chris Uche, SAN, applied that their clients should continue with the earlier bail terms and Mohammed did not oppose it.

The judge equally granted the application by the 1st defendant’s lawyer to move his motion challenging the competence of the charge.

Gordy said the motion on notice was dated and filed on January 8.

The lawyer said the motion prayed for an order striking out Counts 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the charge for being incompetent.

Gordy, who argued that these counts were act of duplicity of action, urged the court to strike them out so that the defendants would not suffer double jeopardy.

Chris, who aligned with Gordy’s argument, prayed the court to accede to their application.

But Mohammed disagreed with the defence arguments.

He submitted that the counts focused on different financial transactions with different dates.

He adopted all his processes and urged the court to dismiss the application.

Citing Section 392(2) of ACJA, 2015, the judge reserved ruling on the motion until the end of the trial.

EFCC then called its first prosecution withess (PW-1), Abimbola Williams, a Compliant Officer with United Bank for Africa (UBA).