Nigeria’s former chief of police Tafa Balogun arrived in handcuffs on Monday to face multi-million-dollar corruption charges, at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Balogun was detained for questioning on Monday last week, two months after he was forced to resign by President Olusegun Obasanjo amid allegations that he was implicated in fraud and money-laundering.
He had served as inspector general, the senior officer in Nigeria’s 300 000-strong police force, since March 2002.
After he arrived at the court the cuffs were removed and he sat in court to await the arrival of the judge in his case.
On Sunday, an officer from Nigeria’s main anti-graft body, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, said that Balogun would be charged with offences relating to money found in a network of Lagos bank accounts.
Nigeria is widely regarded as one of the most corrupt countries in the world and Obasanjo last month warned officials that their greed and dishonesty was undermining his attempts to win international debt relief. — Sapa-AFP