Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) President Paul Usoro on Sunday said he was innocent of the N1.4 billion money laundering charges brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
He made this known during a chat with newsmen after the NBA National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja.
The anti-graft agency had filed 10 counts of fraudulent conversion of N1.4bn against the NBA President before Justice Muslim Hassan of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos.
“I haven’t been served. I expect I will be served but the facts as I know it, I am completely innocent and the facts as I know it, I presented it in the address that was adopted by NEC,” Usoro said.
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“Assuming that there was something that was done; except the association itself makes a complaint to the EFCC or any of the other criminal investigating agencies, then they don’t have any basis having to come in into what we are doing.
“We are an association of lawyers; we have a way of regulating ourselves.”
But he said he would appear in court over the matter as he called for a legislation that would prohibit media trial of persons in court.
The EFCC, in the first count, alleged that Usoro and some persons conspired in 2015 to convert the sum of N1.4bn property of the Akwa Ibom State Government which they ought to have known formed part of the proceeds of crime.
The commission said it would arraign the NBA president on Monday, December 10.
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