Dbanj’s lawyer, Maryam El-Yakub Musa, has described the charges against him by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) as unestablished.
The musician was arrested on Tuesday and detained after ICPC operatives closed in on him, forcing him to surrender himself at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
Investigators alleged that D’banj colluded with some compromised government officials to introduce ghost beneficiaries into the payroll of the N-Power scheme.
The stipend paid to those beneficiaries is then delivered to accounts allegedly linked to the pop star.
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.
Reacting to the arrest, D’banj’s lawyer, Ms Musa, said his “arrest is misconceived, malicious and prejudicial to the justice system anywhere in the world.”
She also said she expects the Commission to stay professional.
“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,” she noted.
Ms Musa added that “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.”
On the accusation of evading arrest, the legal representative explained that Dbanj was officially invited by the ICPC in respect of the investigation a month ago.