By Omotilewa Quadri
A day to his arraignment before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, the suspended Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dr. Mounir Gwarzo, has filed a matter at the Industrial Court in Abuja.
Gwarzo, who sued SEC, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, asked the Industrial Court to declare his suspension illegal.
But the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Related Commission (ICPC) on Monday finalized plans to arraign Gwarzo and a former Commissioner of SEC, Zakawanu Garuba, over alleged N104.8 million severance payment fraud.
According to the charge sheet, both Gwarzo and Garuba will face a four-count charge at the FCT High Court.
The charges read: “That you, Dr. Mounir Gwarzo sometimes in June 2015 or thereabout while being a public officer used your position as the Director-General of SEC to confer corrupt advantage upon yourself when you received N104, 851, 154.94 as severance benefit whereas you were yet to retire, resign or disengage from the service of SEC and you thereby committed an offence and punishable under section 312 of the Penal Code Act, Cap 532 Volume 4 Laws of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, 2007.
“Confer corrupt advantage upon yourself when you received the sum of N10,983,488.88 in excess of car grant payable to you and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.
“That you Zakawanu Garuba (m) on or about June, 2015 while being a public officer used your position as a Commissioner in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to confer corrupt advantage on another public officer to wit: approving the sum of N104, 851,154.94 as severance benefit to the then DG of SEC, Gwarzo when he was yet to retire, resign or disengage from the service of SEC and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under section 19 Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.
“That you Zakawanu Garuba (m) used your position as a Commissioner in SEC to confer corrupt advantage upon another public officer to wit: approving in excess of car grant payable to the Gwarzo and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000.”
The spokesperson of ICPC, Mrs. Rasheedat Okoduwa, said, “We have been notified by the court that the arraignment of the two suspects would hold on Tuesday.”
But Gwarzo, through his counsel, A.U. Mustapha (SAN), on Monday filed a different matter at the Industrial Court seeking to nullify his client’s suspension by Adeosun.
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