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Justice Tijani
Abubakar of the Federal High Court Lagos
division, on Monday January 18,
dismissed the interlocutory application
brought before him by the former
Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele
Fayose to stay proceedings in the case
of corruption and money laundering
leveled against him by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Similarly, an
application by the former
Managing Director and
Chief Executive Officer of
Intercontinental Bank Plc, Dr.
Erastus Akingbola to stop
the anti-graft agency from seizing and
freezing his assets suffered the same
fate before Justice Tijani Abubakar who
rejected the request.
The former
governor had filed an application at the
appeal court challenging the decision of
the high court to allow EFCC file 80
amended charges against him while he
returned to the lower court to ask for
stay of proceedings pending the
determination of his appeal.
But in his
ruling, Justice Abubakar said that
section 40 of the EFCC Act 2004 does not
allow any court to grant stay of
proceedings application in cases filed
by the anti-graft agency. He went
further that the defendant was just
trying to use delay tactics in the
trial. He therefore ordered that the new
charges be read to the accused person
and his plea taken.
Fayose’s counsel,
Mr. Ajayi Owoseni pleaded with the Judge
to give them some time to study the
charges before his client could take his
plea , a request the Judge obliged him
and adjourned the matter to Friday 22
January when the amended 56 count charge
would be read to him and his plea taken.
When the case came up 15 December last
year, the prosecution counsel, Rotimi
Jacob told the court that he wanted to
re-arraign the former governor as a
result of fresh charges against him.
The
re-arraignment could not take place
because the defence lawyer opposed the
bid. This led to a heated argument
between both prosecution and defence
counsel, after which the Judge adjourned
to January 18 so that he could rule on
the matter.
The former
Governor has been facing trial since
2006 over N1.5billion poultry project he
embarked on when he was the chief
executive of the state. He was alleged
to have diverted the money meant for the
project to personal use. The former
governor went into hiding after he was
impeached over the matter. He was
consequently declared wanted by the EFCC
before he surrendered himself a year
after.
Justice Abubakar had in December last
year ordered the freezing of Akingbola’s
accounts for various offences amounting
to the tune of N346billion and
£10million. Also ordered to be frozen by
the court pending the final
determination of the 28-count charge
filed against him, were the accounts
belonging to Akingbola’s wife, his
companies and those of his agents.
At the resumed hearing of the case on
Monday, counsel to Akingbola, Chief
Felix Fagbohungbe (SAN) urged the court
to grant his client an interim order
stopping the EFCC from implementing the
order of the court. He argued that from
all indications, the anti-graft
commission was executing the earlier
order out of order and beyond the orders
of the court.
Fagbohungbe added that while he was not
asking the court to vacate the order,
the commission needs to be stopped by
the court since according to him it was
going beyond the orders of the court. He
further stated that since the commission
obtained the order in the absence of the
former bank chief, it had become clear
that it was exceeding the order by
clamping down on virtually all the
assets of his client including the ones
the court order did not cover.
“Your Lordship, an interim order is what
we are asking for at this juncture and
that is not too much for this court to
give us considering the fact that what
the Petitioner is currently executing is
beyond the orders this court granted,”
he said.
Replying, Justice Abubakar said he was
not ready to grant any order whether
interim or otherwise, noting that it
would be better for other parties to be
notified. He instead urged him to take
a very short date pending when the
petitioner would be in court for the
applications to be argued and sorted
out.
“I am not ready to grant any order
whether interim or otherwise in this
case. I think the best way to go about
it is to take a very short adjournment
for the petitioner to be here for you
all to sort the applications,” he said.
The judge consequently adjourned the
matter to February 3, 2010 for all the
applications to be heard and argued.
It would be recalled that the judge had
ordered the freezing of the accounts of
Akingbola who was relieved from his
position, alongside the Managing
Directors of four other banks, last
August. He also ordered the accounts of
his wife, his companies and those of his
agents to be frozen pending the final
determination of the suit.
The orders were sequel to an ex-parte
application brought by the EFCC and
argued by its counsel, Konyin Ajayi
(SAN), who filed under sections 6 (D),
7(2), 24(11), 26(1), 28 and 34(1) of the
EFCC Act 2004.
The EFCC argued that the freezing of
Akingbola’s assets, was the best option
since a prima facie evidence unearthed
in the course of investigation showed
that he had engaged in serious economic
and
financial crimes including
money laundering, theft,
market manipulation,
tax fraud, obtaining by
false pretences, criminal granting of
loans and facilities, insider abuse,
insider trading and abuse of office.
The anti-graft commission had sought
among other things, the hearing of the
Originating Motion within the shortest
possible time to prevent Akingbola who
had since fled the country to London,
the United Kingdom, from dissipating the
assets.
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