Nigeria - Siemens - Bribery

Nigeria: Siemens - Adebayo, Aminu Appear Before ICPC

Leadership (Abuja)

Former minister of communication, Chief Cornelius Adebayo and Senator Jubril Aminu have appeared before the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) yesterday to submit written denials in the alleged 10 million euro bribery scandal involving the German telecom giant Siemens.

A top official in the commission's office told LEADERSHIP that out of the 13 accused past public officers, only two have appeared before the chairman of the commission to officially submit their individual position statement to the commission.

"The two of them have contact with us. they have reported on their own, so there is no issue of granting bail or not, because they honoured the ICPC's invitation and they have made their position known.

"We are at the stage of allegations. until they are proven innocent or guilty of the economic crime, no one has the right to detain them, especially when ICPC's invitation is honoured. Only those who refuse to honour our invitation will incur the wrath of the commission."

Adebayo and Aminu arrived the commission's office at about 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. respectively and walked straight to the commission's chairman's office where the interrogation session took place.

The source further disclosed that the two indicted officers spent over an hour with the commission's special panel of interrogators, explaining how and why they were mentioned in the deal, in addition to the statement submitted.

Adebayo, who was said to have received 650,000.00 euros in the deal, and Senator Aminu 185,000.00 euros, hurriedly honoured the ICPC's invitation to prove their innocence in the allegations, according to the commission's source.

As at the time of the deal, Aminu was the Senate committee chairman on foreign affairs. he was said to have been very close to most foreign investors visiting the country to transact business and secure government contracts.

The commission is, however, expecting other indicted Nigerians whose names were published in the papers to come forward and make official statements about their involvement in the Siemens bribery scandal.

From AllAfrica.com