By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
The unavailability of exhibits meant for the retrial of former Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, on Wednesday stalled the scheduled trial before a Federal High Court Lagos, Nigeria.
Consequently, the matter was adjourned until March 18 for continuation of trial.
Ikuforiji was re-arraigned alongside his former Personal Assistant, Oyebode Atoyebi, before Justice Mohammed Liman on 54 counts bordering on money laundering to the tune of N338.8 million.
They had pleaded not guilty and were allowed to continue on the earlier bail granted to them.
At the scheduled resumption of trial of the defendants on Wednesday, it could not however, proceed following the unavailability of exhibits .
In view of the development, the court had called counsel for both the prosecution and defence into chambers.
TheNiche later gathered from counsel that the exhibits to be used in the trial were unavailable, as the case had gone on Appeal and even to the Supreme Court.
Prosecution said that it had written to the Supreme Court on the exhibits and was still awaiting its response.
The court consequently, adjourned the case until March 18 and April 1 for continuation of trial.
Recall that 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 bails.
The defendants were, however, subsequently re-arraigned before Justice Ibrahim Buba, following a re-assignment of the case. The judge had granted them bail in the sum of N500 million each with sureties in like sum.
On September 26, 2014, Justice Buba discharged Ikuforiji and his aide of the charges, after upholding a ‘no case’ submission of the defendants. The judge had held that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) failed to establish a prima-facie case against the defendants.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, the EFCC through its counsel, Mr Godwin Obla (SAN), filed Notice of Appeal dated September 30, 2014, challenging the decision of the trial court.
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were incompetent because they were filed under Section 1(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004 which was repealed by an Act of 2011.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 contended 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 submissions of 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.
According to the charge, EFCC alleged that the defendants accepted cash payments above the threshold set by the Money Laundering Act, without going through a financial institution.
The commission accused the defendants of conspiring to commit an illegal act of accepting cash payments in the aggregate sum of N338.8 million from the House of Assembly without going through a financial institution.
Ikuforiji was also accused of using his position to misappropriate funds belonging to the State Assembly.
The EFCC submitted that the defendants committed the offences between April 2010 and July 2011.
The offences, according to the EFCC, contravenes the provisions of Sections 15 (1d), 16(1d) and 18 of Money Laundering Act, 2004 and 2011.
