EFCC versus Shehu Sani: Former Kaduna lawmaker appears in court, pleads not guilty

EFCC versus Shehu Sani: Former Kaduna lawmaker appears in court, pleads not guilty

- The EFCC has produced Senator Sani in court after weeks in detention

- The former Kaduna senator was slammed with two counts of bribery and advance free fraud

- Sani, has, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges and asked the court to allow him go home

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has brought Senator Shehu Sani to a federal high court in Abuja to be arraigned on charges of extortion.

Sani has been in the custody of the anti-graft commission since December 2019 when he was arrested.

Channels TV reports that the EFCC slammed two counts of bribery and advance free fraud against the outspoken former senator.

Sani, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges on Monday, January 27, during his arraignment.

EFCC versus Shehu Sani: Former Kaduna lawmaker appears in court, pleads not guilty
Former Kaduna lawmaker Shehu Sani appears in court, pleads not guilty to charges preferred against
Source: UGC

After pleading not guilty, the former lawmaker asked the court to allow him to go home.

Earlier, EFCC had presented incriminating audiotapes against Senator Sani.

The tapes which are 13 in number contained conversations between Sani and his accuser, one Sani Dauda, a car dealer.

The embattled former lawmaker subsequently challenged the EFCC to publish the telephone conversation between him and his accuser.

Sani also vowed to make the full audio conversation he had with Dauda public when his trial begins at the court.

The former lawmaker's aide, Suleiman Ahmed, claimed that the audio presented by the EFCC to prove Sani's alleged extortion of Dauda had been doctored.

Ahmed said there was nowhere in the audio conversation that indicated his principal was given money.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that Sani demanded N100million damages from the EFCC over his detention.

Sani had said his continuous detention without trial was a gross violation of his fundamental rights. He claimed that some were bent on destroying his reputation.

The arrest of the former lawmaker has been condemned by some Nigerians who claimed it was an attempt to silence him from continually criticising the government.

Sani belonged to the ruling APC until the buildup to the 2019 elections when he left for another minority party.

He lost his attempt to return to the Senate.

Abdulmunafi Abdullahi said: "Dear Economic And Financial Crimes Commission,What you're doing is not fighting corruption but idly fighting your own principles. The illegal detention of Comr. Shehu Sani is by itself corruption in the highest regard.#FreeShehuSani Now I repeat No lie can live forever!"

Meanwhile, the anti-graft agency has condemned the recent corruption ranking by Transparency International (TI).

The EFCC said the 2019 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) recently released by TI in which ranked Nigeria 146 out of 180 countries is a poor rating.

A statement by the EFCC on Thursday, January 23, described Transparency International's rating as baseless and appalling.

The commission said the bogus and ambiguous criteria used by TI to arrive at the ranking can best be described as an illogical rating.

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Source: Legit.ng

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