The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has brought former Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Fidet Okhiria, before a Lagos court over alleged financial crimes amounting to $385,000 and N165,438,000.
Okhiria was docked on Tuesday before the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja on a seven-count charge bordering on money laundering and related offences.
According to the charge sheet, the anti-graft agency accused him of transferring large sums of money suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities to an overseas account.
“That you, Fidet Okhiria Edetanle, while serving as the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, between May 29, 2024, and September 11, 2024, in Lagos, transferred a cumulative sum of Two Hundred and Five Thousand United States Dollars ($205,000.00) from your domiciliary account in Access Bank Plc (account number 0010069159) to the account of Ehimen Richard Okhiria at ABN AMRO Bank, Netherlands (account number NL38ABNA011257662), being proceeds of unlawful activities, thereby committing money laundering,” part of the charge sheet reads.
The commission further alleged:
“You, Fidet Okhiria Edetanle, after leaving office, between October 21, 2024, and November 21, 2024, in Lagos, transferred Forty Thousand United States Dollars ($40,000.00) from your Access Bank domiciliary account to the account of Ehimen Richard Okhiria at ABN AMRO Bank, Netherlands, being proceeds of unlawful activities, committing money laundering.”
The former railway chief pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Following his plea, EFCC counsel, Abba Muhammad, urged the court to set a date for trial and remand the defendant in custody pending proceedings.
However, defence counsel Adebowale Kamoru told the court he had only just received the charge and requested a brief adjournment to enable him file a bail application.
In his ruling, Justice Rahman Oshodi ordered that Okhiria be remanded in a correctional facility.
The court subsequently adjourned the matter to May 13, 14 and 15, 2026, for trial.
Okhiria was appointed Managing Director of the NRC in 2016 by former President Muhammadu Buhari and completed his eight-year tenure in 2024.
