A Federal High Court in Abuja presided by Justice Evoh Chukwu on Monday approved the extradition of Mr Ehidiamhem Okoyomon, a former managing director of the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC) to the United Kingdom to face charges of bribery and corruption.
Chukwu would not provide reprieve for Okoyomon who had approached the court to stop hi extradiction. The judge rather ruled that the ex-Mint boss should be extradited within 30 days to the Untied Kingdom for the trial.
Okoyomon is wanted in the United Kingdom over his alleged role in the bribery involving officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigerian Security and Minting Company and Security International Party of Australia.
Immediately after the court ruling, he was guided into a waiting security vehicle by the Operatives of the economic and crimes commission.
Justice Chukwu had held that since there was a treaty agreement between Nigeria and the United Kingdom and since the treaty was still valid and applicable in Nigeria the Federal Government had the power to extradite the accused person.
According to the judge, all legal procedures were properly followed by Nigeria’s Justice Minister, with the placement of certified true copy of letter of indictment of the accused and letter of request for his extradition from the British High Commissioner before the court, as stipulated by the law.
Okoyomon, he said, by not challenging all issues of corruption levelled against him by the documents from the United Kingdom accepted the allegation brought against him.
The Judge said no Nigerian court would willingly surrender it’s citizen to any country for trial, “but in this case, Okoyomon is a British citizen, as such there is nothing wrong in his extradition to his country for trial”.
After the decision of the court, the counsel to Mr Okoyomon, Chike Ekeocha, said his client would explore other means to stop his extradition.
With the ruling, the Federal Government can, within the next 30 days, extradite the former boss of the Nigerian Securities Minting and Printing Company to the United Kingdom to answer charges against him.
Okoyomon was the chief executive of the NSMPC until November 2013 when he was suspended by the Board of the Central Bank of Nigeria in the wake of the N1000 notes disappearance scandal.
Okoyomon, who holds dual Nigerian and British citizenship, has been arrested by the EFCC.
The international dimension to the scandal was said to have informed the proposed extradition of the ex-Mint boss.
According to some sources, the extradition was approved by the Federal Government following substantial investigation into the scam by the EFCC in collaboration with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the British National Crime Agency (BNCA).
Reports indicate that the outcome of the investigation revealed a “kind of international network and the diversion of the bribe sums into slush accounts in the UK and Canada.”
