For Stella Oduah, the Storm is Not Over

“Court again?” should be the thought of the informed reader upon eyeing this piece. Just this past Wednesday, December 10, the weather at the FCT High Court revolved around Stella Oduah’s latest arraignment.

The EFCC charged the former aviation minister with a five-count allegation of fraud involving more than N2 billion. Prosecutors said she conspired with an aide in 2014 to extract funds from the aviation ministry using two private firms. They called the transactions false pretence; she pleaded not guilty.

The sums were striking. One transfer represented an alleged cost of technical supervision. Another carried the label of security support services. Investigators now argue the labels masked misappropriation. Her lawyers countered that she returned from the United States voluntarily and had honoured previous summons.

That defence entered a crowded history. A decade earlier, Oduah lost her ministerial seat after the scandal around the purchase of luxury BMW vehicles for more than N200 million. The episode opened a long corridor of probes: airport contract audits, EFCC interrogations, and public questions about academic claims she once cited.

The claims grew tangled. An American college denied awarding the postgraduate degree she listed. The National Youth Service Corps stated she did not complete the mandatory service year. Each revelation pushed her deeper into legal territory that mixed political rivalry with procedural questions.

Financial troubles added another layer. AMCON seized some assets over unresolved debts. Federal prosecutors later filed charges of document falsification linked to the NYSC issue. Even those cases required special court directives to manage the volume of filings.

Her current arraignment fits into that mosaic rather than standing apart from it. Critics frame it as the natural progression of an unresolved past. Supporters insist the timing reflects selective enforcement. Either way, the courtroom remains the arena where her public life now unfolds.

The judge granted bail and scheduled the trial for February 2026. For Oduah, the date offers little respite. A storm that began with a pair of luxury cars has expanded into something larger, and the horizon still carries clouds.