By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
Justice Nicholas Oweibo of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Thursday adjourned till March 6, 2020, to decide whether the former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Maurice Iwu, standing trial before the court on charges of laundering N1.23 billion can be tried in Lagos or not.
Counsel to the former INEC chairman, Mr. Hameed Raji (SAN), in an application filed and argued before the court challenging territorial jurisdiction of the court, urged the court to transfer the case to Abuja, on the ground that the offence alleged to have been committed took place in Abuja.
Besides, the defendant resides in Abuja and any time the matter comes up in Lagos, the defendant spends money on transportation, hotel accommodation and goes through a lot of stress.
However, the EFCC prosecuting counsel Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, in his counter argument in opposition to the application, told the court that, apart from the fact that in the new Administration of Criminal Justice system, only the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court has the power to transfer any case from one division of the court to another division, all the witnesses the prosecution intends to call are all Lagos based, the investigating Police Officer, the officers of the banks to give evidence are in Lagos.
Mr Oyedepo argued further that the alleged offence committed by Maurice Iwu touches the economy of Nigeria, therefore he can be tried in any part of the country. Consequently he urged the court not to grant Iwu’s request.
After listening to the submission of the two parties the presiding Judge, Justice Oweibo adjourned till March 6, 2020, for ruling
Recall that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned Prof Maurice Iwu on Thursday, August 8, 2019 before a vacation judge, Justice Obiozor, on a four-count charge of money laundering to the tune of N1.2 billion.
He had pleaded not guilty to all the counts.
According to the charge, Prof Maurice Iwu was alleged to have between December 2014 and March 27, 2015, in Nigeria within the jurisdiction of the court, aided the concealment of the total sum of N1,203,000,000 in Bioresources Institute of Nigeria (BION) Ltd’s acct number 1018603119 domiciled in United Bank for Africa (UBA), a sum he reasonably ought to have known forms part of the proceeds of unlawful act to wit: “fraud and you thereby committed offence contrary to Section18 (a), 15 (2) (a) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 as amended and punishable under Section 15 (3) of the same Act.”
Iwu was also alleged to have procured Bioresouces Institute of Nigeria Ltd (BION) to retain the aforementioned sum in the same acct domiciled with UBA.
In count four, Maurice Iwu and Victor Chukwuani were alleged to have between 23rd and 29th of December 2014, procured BION to retain the aggregate sum of N407 million domiciled in same account with UBA, contrary to Section 18 (a), 15 (2) (a) of the Money Laundering Act 2011 as amended and punishable under Section 15 (3) of the same Act.
As a vacation judge, Justice Obiozor having presided over the arraignment and concluded with the ruling on bail application, directed the court registrar to return the case file to the Admin judge for reassignment.
The case was subsequently assigned to Justice Nicholas Oweibo to adjudicate.