Five National Theatre Directors To Be Arraigned For Fraud On June 13

A Federal High Court has fixed June 13 for the arraignment of five directors of the National Theatre for allegedly receiving N500,000 each from a government contractor.

Naija News learnt that the defendants are a former Acting General Manager, George Ntanta; the Director of Business Development and Events Management, Abiodun Abe; the Director of Engineering and Technology, Ndubuisi Nwogu; the Director of Planning, Research and Strategies, Doris Okafor and Mr Femi Joel.

They were charged by the Special Presidential Investigation Panel on two counts of violating the Code of Conduct Act.

According to the charge, the accused were said to have committed the offence on January 16, 2017.

The prosecution alleged that while being public officers, they accepted the sum of N500,000 each from a commercial firm, Market Execution Solutions Ltd, which had a contract with the Federal Government.

Justice Muslim Hassan,In his ruling, upheld the submissions of Mr Alilu and held that by the provisions of the constitution, the AGF possessed the power to take over criminal proceedings and “is not legally bound to explain the reasons for the takeover”.

He reiterated the provisions of sections 174 of the constitution, stating that the AGF’s power of taking over can be exercised by him personally or by any of his officers.

The court consequently held that: “Mr A. K Alilu is an officer of the A-G and he can validly take over the case”.The case was later adjourned till June 13, 2018, for the arraignment of the defendants.