Alleged N85m Scam: EFCC amends charges against UCTH CMD, others

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Wednesday, amended charges against the Chief Medical Director of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, UCTH, Prof Thomas Agan and four other defendants standing trial in an N85 million procurement scam.
The four other defen­dants include two staff of the teaching hospital, Ofor Jonan Ofor, Head, Works and Engineering and Fran­cis I. Utu, Chief Adminis­trative Officer and Head, Legal Services.
The other two are Oko­cha Anthony and Em­manuel Etta Nkim, who are both promoters and owners of Anchor Indus­trial and Construction Services Nigeria Ltd and Basemark Energy Nigeria Ltd, the two companies al­legedly used to perpetrate the fraud.
They are all standing tri­al before Justice I. E. Ekwo of the Federal High Court sitting in Calabar, Cross River State capital.
In the amended charges, the original five counts were expanded to include two new defendants, Prof Achibong E. Achibong, Director of Administration of the hospital and Effiong Okon Udobong, Head of Procurement. The two new defendants now serve as 2nd and 3rd defendants re­spectively.
The amended charges were stiffly contested by the Defence Counsel, Mba Uk­wueni, SAN, who argued that the prosecution had no legal right to amend the charges without the leave of the court. He cited Section 216 of Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 to support his submission. -The Authority