Court clears former HoS Oronsaye on the charge of N190m fraud.

Stephen Oronsaye, a former Head of Service (HoS) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, was cleared on Monday by an Abuja Federal High Court of the N190 million fraud accusation that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had brought against him.

Justice Inyang Ekwo ruled that the prosecution had not presented sufficient evidence to support Oronsaye’s conviction.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Oronsaye was charged with 49 counts together with Osarenkhoe Afe, managing director of Fedrick Hamilton Global Services Limited.

However, the accusations were then changed and lowered to 22 counts when the anti-graft panel split the portions implicating a former head of the Presidential Pension Task Force, Abdulrasheed Maina, who was then at large.

In November 2021, Maina was found guilty and given an eight-year jail term after being prosecuted independently by the EFCC.

The indictment put up by the EFCC against Oronsaye also included three businesses: Cluster Logistic Limited, Kangolo Dynamic Cleaning Limited, and Drew Investment & Construction Company Limited.

The accused, according to the EFCC, were allegedly involved in procurement fraud between 2010 and 2011.

Orosanye and the others were further charged by the EFCC with utilizing inflated contracts for biometric enrolment, collective allowances, and other schemes to steal money from accounts holding pensioner payments.

The panel also provided a report by the Auditor-General of the Federation on the pension accounts of the Federal Government, which accused Oronsaye and others of fraud.