Court adjourns re-arraignment of National Assembly officials in N337m fraud case

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday failed to re-arraign three officials of the National Assembly over an alleged N337 million fraud following a preliminary objection by one of the defendants.

The defendants are Aishatu Bappa El-Nafaty, Director of Public Affairs in the Directorate of Special Duties and Parliamentary Security; Mamud Alhaji Abubakar, former Permanent Secretary in the National Assembly; and Igba Ityoakura Joseph, Deputy Director of Procurement.

The trio were scheduled to be re-arraigned before Justice Muhammed Zubairu of the FCT High Court in Jikwoyi, Abuja.

The EFCC had filed an amended 23-count charge bordering on conspiracy, forgery, criminal breach of trust, official corruption and alleged diversion of N337,062,350 belonging to the National Assembly.

The re-arraignment could not proceed after Muhammed Ndayako, counsel to Abubakar, filed a preliminary objection challenging portions of the amended charge.

Ndayako urged the court to strike out counts three, four, five, six, seven and 18 of the amended charge dated October 8, 2025.

The lawyer argued that the counts sought to revive charges that had already been quashed by the court in a ruling delivered on May 12, 2025.

In response, Francis Usani, counsel to the EFCC, said the objection was served on the prosecution only on June 5, shortly before the scheduled re-arraignment.

Usani said the defence had more than a month from the last adjourned date to file the application and urged the court to dismiss the objection.

He described the application as frivolous, incompetent and intended to frustrate the re-arraignment proceedings, stressing that the court should direct the defendants to take their plea on the amended charges.

One of the charges alleges that the defendants conspired between 2017 and 2019 to commit criminal breach of trust while serving in the National Assembly.

Another count accuses El-Nafaty of allegedly converting N89.87 million transferred from National Assembly accounts into her personal account.

The EFCC also alleged that El-Nafaty forged receipts purportedly issued by Fazah Integrated Services Limited between 2017 and 2018.

Following an indication by El-Nafaty that she intends to file a similar preliminary objection, the court directed her to do so within 48 hours.

Zubairu held that the prosecution should be given time to respond to the objections in the interest of justice.

The judge subsequently adjourned the matter until September 23, 2026, for hearing on the preliminary objections.