The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission has dragged the candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the Ideato North and South Federal Constituency in Imo State, Abazu Benson, to the Court of Appeal.
A copy of the court documents was obtained by journalists in Abuja on Wednesday.
In the appeal, the ICPC maintained that its three grounds of appeal were enough to upturn the High Court’s ruling and for Benson to be convicted.
In a copy of the six-count charge filed at the High Court, the ICPC alleged in count one that Benson, on April 14, 2014, while being a public officer, asked for and received N10m from a contractor as gratification and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 10(a)(i) of the ICPC Act, which is punishable with seven years imprisonment.
The proof of evidence attached by the ICPC further showed that, while still a public servant and against the code of conduct for public officers, Benzon registered the company, Transtell Nigeria Limited, through which he collected the bribes and was the sole signatory to the account of the company.
In counts three and six, the anti-corruption agency also alleged that Benzon also asked for and received N4m and N3m respectively, from the same contractor.
It said Benson even collected the last N3m in his private account with the United Bank for Africa.
The commission also alleged that when the said contractor could not complete the N23m bribe demanded of him, Abazu, who was then a Special Assistant to the Director General, used his office to arbitrarily terminate the contract.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the appeal.
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