EFCC Lawyer Denies Accepting Bribe in OPL 245 Trial

Offem Uket, the prosecutor in the OPL 245 case involving former Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke, has vehemently denied allegations of receiving bribes to compromise the suit.

In a statement released on Sunday, Uket asserted that he handled the case with the utmost “ethical and professional standard” throughout his tenure at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Uket took over the case in 2022 after the previous prosecutor left the EFCC, with three witnesses already taken in the case pending at the FCT High Court. He proceeded to take seven additional witnesses before closing the case for the prosecution.

In the cases pending before the Federal High Court, Uket closed the prosecution’s case after taking two more witnesses, in addition to the seven who had previously testified.

After evaluating the evidence presented by the ten witnesses in the FCT High Court, Uket conceded that there was insufficient evidence to dismiss the no-case submission for counts 1 to 5 out of the 40 counts in the charge.

However, he urged the Federal High Court to dismiss the no-case submission made on behalf of Adoke and Abubakar Aliyu, stating that they both had cases to answer.

Uket also clarified that he was not sacked by the EFCC, but rather chose not to renew his contract with the agency when it was about to expire on January 31, 2024. He emphasized that the issue of being sacked or denied contract extension due to the case’s outcome was untrue, as there was no such application before the EFCC.

The prosecutor firmly denied being compromised or bribed by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, Mohammed Bello Adoke, or any other person to sabotage the prosecution. He stated, “It is the joy of every prosecutor to win his case, not at all cost, but sometimes when requisite evidence is lacking, there is nothing anyone can do.”

Uket described the online publication alleging bribery as “an egregious and reprehensible effort orchestrated at tarnishing my character.” He challenged the newspaper to provide proof that they sought his side of the story before publishing the article, demanding a retraction and apology in like manner.

The allegations surfaced after a ruling on March 28, where Judge Abubakar Kutigi of the FCT High Court upheld the defendants’ no-case submission and dismissed the charges, chiding the EFCC for wasting four years on the trial without providing evidence.