IGP didn’t charge Ohakim to court for fraud, says lawyer

Ikedi Ohakim, former governor of Imo state, has dismissed claims that Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police (IGP), charged him to court for alleged fraud.

The police had earlier accused the ex-governor of using the name of Babatunde Raji Fashola, minister of works and housing, to defraud unsuspecting victims.

The charge, marked CR/993/2020 and dated September 23, 2020, was filed before a federal capital territory (FCT) high court.

Ohakim was also alleged to have given false information against one Chinyere Lilian Amuchienwa.

But in a statement to TheCable on Friday, Aloy Ejimakor, counsel to the former governor, debunked the purported charge against his client by the IGP.

“A casual analysis of the purported charge sheet shows that the allegations failed to clearly disclose any offense known to law and it appears that the charges were initiated without proper authority,” he said.

“Through our investigations, we state that no FCT high court has taken cognizance of the charges, even as it appears from the face of the charge sheet that the charges were preferred since 21st September, 2020; and Dr Ohakim was never served to this day. We only became aware of the matter through the said media reports.”

He described the said criminal charge as a deliberate attempt to injure his client’s reputation in the wake of his earlier petition against Amuchienwa before the IGP.

According to him, Ohakim had earlier filed a petition against Amuchienwa for assault, threats, defamation of character among others, which, he said, is currently being investigated by the police.

He, however, noted that if the said charge sheet “ultimately turns out to be true, it would amount to actionable contempt of court against Amuchienwa-Igwegbe and others that had a hand in it.”

Ejimakor urged the public to disregard the reported criminal charge reports “as tissue of lies.”

The lawyer added that such reports “were the machinations of some unscrupulous elements working on the promptings of the said Amuchienwa-Igwegbe in collaboration with some media racketeers.”