A former speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi
Ikuforiji, yesterday, appeared before a Lagos Division of the Federal
High Court, over alleged N338.8 million money laundering charges.
Ikuforiji is charged alongside his former Personal Assistant, Oyebode Atoyebi.
The defendants were first arraigned on March 1, 2012, before Justice
Okechukwu Okeke on a 20-count charge bordering on misappropriation and
money laundering.
They had each pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted bail.
The defendants were, however, subsequently re-arraigned before Justice
Ibrahim Buba, following a re-assignment of the case.
On September 26, 2014, Buba discharged Ikuforiji and his aide of the
charges, after upholding a no-case submission of the defendants.
Buba had held that the EFCC failed to establish a prima-facie case against them.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, the EFCC through its counsel, Godwin
Obla, a senior advocate of Nigeria, filed the Notice of Appeal dated
September 30, 2014, challenging the decision of the trial court.
Mr Obla had argued that the trial court erred in law when it held that
the counts were incompetent because they were filed under Section 1(a)
of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004 which was repealed by
an Act of 2011.
EFCC further argued that the lower court erred in law when it held
that the provisions of Section 1 of the Money Laundering (Prohibition)
Act, 2004 and 2011, only applied to natural persons and corporate
bodies other than the Government.
The commission had also submitted that the trial judge erred in law
when he held and concluded that the testimonies of the prosecution
witnesses supported the innocence of the respondents.
In its judgement, the Lagos Division of the Appeal Court, in November
2016, agreed with the prosecution and ordered a fresh trial of the
defendants before another judge.
Following the decision of the Appeal Court, the defendants headed to
the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the ruling of the Appellate
court.
Again, in its verdict, the apex court also upheld the decision of the
appellate court and ordered that the case be sent back to the Chief
Judge of the Federal High Court for reassignment to another judge.
The trial is now to begin de novo (afresh) before a new judge, Justice
Mohammed Liman.
On Wednesday, Ekele Iheanacho appeared for the prosecution while Dele
Adesina (SAN) appeared for the defendants.
The case was called, and the defendants moved into the dock.
The amended 54 counts charge was read over to them and they both
pleaded not guilty to the charges.
After their pleas, Mr Iheanacho asked the court for a trial date and
prayed that the defendant be remanded in custody pending bail.
