ABDULLAHI Babalele, the son-in-law to the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has been arraigned on a two-count charge bordering on money laundering.
Babalele was on Wednesday arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) at Federal High Court in Lagos.
The EFCC on August 9th filed a two-count charge against Atiku’s son-in-law for allegedly aiding the cash payment of the sum of $140,000 without going through a financial institution.
The prosecutor of the EFCC, Rotimi Oyedepo who signed the charges said Babalele had committed the offence since February 2019.
The count read thus:
COUNT 1: That you Abdullahi Babalele on or about the 20th day of February 2019 in Nigeria within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court. procured Bashir Mohammed to make a cash payment of the sum of $140,000. 00 (One Hundred and Forty Thousand United State Dollars) without going through a financial institution, which sum exceeded the amount authorized by Law and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18(c) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 as amended and punishable under Section 16(2)(b) of the same Act.
Count 2: That you Abdullahi Babalele on or about the 20th day of February,2019 in Nigeria within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, aided Bashir Mohammed to make cash payment of the sum of $140,000. 00 (One Hundred and Forty Thousand United State Dollars) without going through financial institution, which sum exceeded the amount authorized by Law and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 as amended and punishable under Section 16(2)(b) of the same Act.”
However, Babalele before Justice Nicholas Oweibo pleaded not guilty to the two-count charge.
Also arraigned by the EFCC was a former associate of Atiku, Uyiekpen Giwa-Osagie and a legal practitioner on a three-count charge bordering on a $2million money laundering in the build-up to the 2019 general elections.
The EFCC disclosed that in the charge was Erhunse Giwa-Osagie, a brother to Atiku’s associate.
The antigraft said the two defendants had conspired to make a cash payment of $2million on February 12, 2019, without going through a financial institution.
The duo pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Consequently, Justice Oweibo ordered that Babalele and the Osagie brothers be remanded at the EFCC custody pending the hearing of their bail application on Thursday, August 15.