Abuja – Nigeria’s ex-president Goodluck Jonathan’s former doctor has been charged with six counts of money laundering, the country’s anti-corruption agency says.
Fortunate Fiberesima, who worked as Jonathan’s personal physician in 2012, is accused of awarding contracts to companies in which he had a personal interest, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said.
Fiberesima, former head of the State House Medical Centre, pleaded not guilty to all charges at a court in Abuja, Nigeria’s political capital, it said.
Military regime
He was ordered to be released on bail pending trial, which will start on June 6.
President Muhammadu Buhari, a former army general who first led a military regime in the 1980s, has made combating Nigeria’s rampant corruption a hallmark of his tenure.
A two-year campaign by the EFCC has seen the agency seize hundreds of millions of dollars in allegedly ill-gotten gains and there has been a string of high-profile arrests.
However, there has yet to be a conclusion to any corruption trial.
Buhari’s critics accuse him of conducting a witch-hunt, targeting opposition party members or those who served in the previous administration.
The government dismisses the criticism, insisting that anyone with a proven case of graft would face the law.
Awarded contracts
On April 19, Buhari, pressed by the Nigerian Senate, suspended two key aides over alleged irregularities.
David Babachir Lawal, a top-ranking member of the administration, was alleged last year to have awarded contracts running into millions of naira to companies in which he had interests.
Buhari also suspended Ayo Oke, head of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), one of the country’s spy bodies, pending an investigation into the discovery of a stash of cash in a private apartment.
Source:News24