N-Power fraud: Lawyer demands D’banj’s release, says ‘he is innocent’
Pelumi Olajengbesi, the lawyer to D’banj, has asked the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to release the singer from detention.
On Tuesday, the singer was detained by the ICPC — a few weeks after he was summoned by the commission.
The ICPC had revealed he is under investigation for allegedly diverting funds released for the federal government’s N-Power project.
In a statement on Thursday, Olajengbesi said the ICPC had promised to release him after Wednesday’s interrogation “having found nothing on him and with no further grounds for his continued detention”.
The lawyer, however, said his release was delayed because the commission claimed it was unable to get its chairman’s approval.
Olajengbesi said the ‘Fall in Love’ crooner has “satisfactorily cooperated with the commission’s investigation” and lamented his continued detention.
The lawyer said efforts to release the musician on Thursday also proved abortive despite the fact that his detention is “beyond the constitutionally allowed limits without a charge made in court”.
“Consequently, after Wednesday’s interview session, we were informed he will be released as a matter of course having found nothing on him and with no further grounds for his continued detention. However, the Chairman of the Commission was required to sign off on his immediate release before it could be effected and that never happened,” the statement reads.
“We were at the Commission today to give D’banj the required legal representation and all we waited for was still the ‘approval from above’ that never came. D’banj was also not interviewed today on any other issue before his lawyers.
“While holding on to the sustained hope that D’banj will not somehow become the victim of targeted blackmail or faceless malice from certain quarters with perhaps vested interest in his downfall, we want to reassure the general public and the Commission by implication that we are fully ready and willing to cooperate to the extent of the law that makes for the finding of the truth in this matter which we take quite seriously.
“We in the same vein, reiterate that D’banj has no such access nor colluded with any government officials over any dubious transaction. The very allegation is a nightmare that must be dissipated by an assertion of the truth of D’banj’s unimpeachable innocence.”
Olajengbesi described the allegations against the singer as “laughable” and asked the ICPC to reveal the names of officials indicted in its investigation.
“As a matter of course, we now place a major demand on the oversight Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to immediately cause the release of the names of the government officials alleged to have colluded with D’banj and the investigation of same should be made public. We also demand that the ministry should make public immediately money alleged to have been traced to Dbanj’s account,” it added.
“We call on the National Assembly’s Public Account Committee to open a wide investigation into the N-Power scheme through an open and all free entry public hearing without protecting any sacred cows.
“It is alarming and incongruous to design such an allegation against Dbanj who does not have access to government accounts or government platforms to have been alleged to have diverted such huge sums without any single government official in custody with him.
“We have opted to treat this matter with all sense of diligence and with the benefit of doubt extended to the Commission given that we are mindful the Commission is headed by a Professor of Law and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria whom we believe reckons with the principle that an accused is innocent until proven guilty and would constitutionally comply with same.
“It is to this end that we implore the Commission to be mindful of having detained D’banj beyond the constitutionally allowed limits without a charge made in court, following which we encourage the Commission to have him brought before a competent court with the necessary charges forthwith or duly release him while continuing their investigation which we understand can be a demanding and pressing task.
“D’banj is innocent of all the laughable allegations and deliberate publicity and has demonstrated patrotism by encouraging the Commission and such an act in good faith must not be unfairly rewarded.”