FORMER Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank Plc, Erastus Akingbola, has debunked rumours that he is negotiating a plea bargaining over his court cases.A statement issued yesterday by his Public Affairs counsel, Mr. Charles Nwajagu, reads: In the light of the continued deliberately misleading campaign against me, I feel compelled to issue this statement with the hope that it will dispel the cruel insinuations and correct the impression that I am negotiating a plea bargain deal concerning my pending court cases arising from the controversial banking reform.I hereby state that neither myself nor my lawyer ever wrote any letter to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in order to secure a plea bargain or on any other issue. In the same vein, I never sought any approval from Intercontinental Bank in order to pay the bank as I am not owing them any money.There was no court order anywhere in the world that I should pay any sum of money to Intercontinental Bank Plc, neither is there any iota of truth in the alleged moves to secure plea bargaining. As things are, and by verifiable proceedings in the law courts, there is no cause for such alleged plea bargain or to suggest same at all. There is no doubt that these allegations are similar to the phantom N346 billion I was alleged to have stolen from the bank.For the avoidance of doubt, I do not intend to plea bargain. I am resolute in my belief that it is better for my persecutors to prove my guilt before the law courts. If my accusers have a good case as they claim, why are they interested in harassing me to plea bargain to justify their incursion into private businesses Justice should be allowed to take its course.The case I am being tried for in Nigeria is exactly what I am equally facing in United Kingdom (UK). If you add the Security and Exchange Tribunal, it will mean the cases are being tried in three courts. Yet, not satisfied, my accusers continue to employ all manner of underhand tactics to make it impossible to defend myself: denying me access to relevant documents, starving my UK lawyers of legal fees through a freezing order, engaging an Internet company to post hundreds of comments on my case with pseudo-Nigerian names and generally resorting to media trial.By engaging in trial in the court of public opinion via the media, my persecutors aim to pour public odium on my person and consequently prejudice on-going criminal trial in Nigerian law courts. They have turned themselves into complainant, prosecutor and judge. Therefore, this misleading campaign should be seen for what it is: a deliberate ploy to justify the illegal hijack of the bank and the planned sale to their special interest group.It is also surprising that contrary to the Federal High Court ruling while granting me bail to wit: That I was never declared wanted by the EFCC; that I did not abscond from Nigeria; that I came back to my country when I felt it was safe for my life and I voluntarily reported to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), a section of the media still prefers to claim that I fled the country and was declared wanted. With this persistent misrepresentation of the facts, I have instructed my lawyers to set the records straight.
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