By Yinka Akanbi
Popular Nigerian singer, Dapo Oyebanjo, professionally known as D’banj, was on Tuesday arrested and detained after operatives of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) picked him up, forcing him to surrender himself at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.
The anti-graft agency allege that the 42-year-old artiste colluded with some compromised government officials to introduce ghost beneficiaries into the payroll of the N-Power scheme with stipends paid to these beneficiaries delivered to accounts that have now allegedly been linked to the singer.
The N-Power is a scheme established by President Muhammadu Buhari on the 8th of June 2016 to address the issues of youth unemployment and empowerment and help increase social development.
In a statement signed by the Commission’s spokesperson, Azuka Ogugua, the body said that in line with its mandate, it had received numerous petitions on the diversion of N-Power funds running into billions of naira following the approval and release of such funds to the beneficiaries by the Federal Government.
The spokesperson revealed that about ten persons have been invited by the ICPC over the last few months in connection with the N-Power fraud and have been granted administrative bail after detention.
Reacting to the arrest, however, Dbanj’s lawyer, Maryam El-Yakub Musa, described the charges against her client as unestablished.
Ms Musa said his “arrest is misconceived, malicious and prejudicial to the justice system anywhere in the world.”
She also said she expected the Commission to stay professional and abstain from sensational media trial.
“For the record, D’banj has no contractual or incidental relationship whatsoever with any group or persons within or outside government about the disbursement, operations, access or control of the process of any government fund through an agency or its subsidiaries.
“Emphatically and as a matter of policy, Dbanj and his management do not engage in business dealings unless they are legitimate, properly documented and obtainable in law,” she added.
She further urged the general to resist the urge to buy into media sensationalism which is unsurprising but harmful to the course for the truth which D’banj has set himself on by honouring the ICPC’s summons.
D’banj is a singer and songwriter best known internationally for his 2012 hit ‘Oliver Twist’, an uptempo dance fusion of Afrobeats and electronic dance music that topped the African charts in 2011 and was a top 10 hit in the UK singles chart in 2012 reaching No. 2 on the UK R&B chart.
His arrest is generating mixed reactions on social media with many calling on ICPC to name the government officials that D’Banj allegedly colluded with rather than be seen to be shielding them from scrutiny.
