By Felix Kuyinu
The Lagos State High Court has set June 3 for trial of former Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, over allegations of money laundering act.
Ikuforiji was accused of misappropriation of funds to the tune of N388.8m belonging to the Assembly from April 2010 to July 2011 while holding the post at the Assembly, as submitted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commision, EFCC.
The alleged offences contravene sections 15 (1d), 16(1d) and 18 of the Money Laundering Act of 2004 and 2011.
On Friday, the court said it has reserved judgment until June 3 against Ikuforiji alongside his former personal assistant, Oyebode Atoyebi, who are both on a 54-count charge.
At an earlier arraingement before Justice Okechukwu Okeke in 2012, the accused duo pleaded not guilty. Ikuforiji told the court that he was on a faceless accussation. He further noted that the case arose from a petition written by an unknown person alleging that he stole about N7 billion from the Lagos House of Assembly.
The were granted bail by Justice Okeke but later re-arraigned before Justice Ibrahim Buba following the re-assignment of the case.
Following subsequent arraignment, Justice Buba granted them N500 million bail each, with two sureties in like sum.
On September 26, 2014, the judge discharged the former Speaker and his aide after upholding their no-case submissions. He held that EFCC failed to establish a prima facie case against them.
However, dissatisfied with the judgment, EFCC, through its counsel, Godwin Obla (SAN), filed an appeal dated September 30, 2014.
Obla 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were incompetent because they were filed under section 1(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004, which was repealed by an Act of 2011.
He also submitted that the trial court erred in law when it concluded that the testimonies of prosecution witnesses supported innocence of the defendants.
In its judgement, the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal, in November 2016, upheld EFCC’s submissions and ordered a fresh trial of the defendants before another judge.
Following the new developments, the defendants headed for the Supreme Court, seeking to upturn the judgment of the Court of Appeal.
In its verdict, the apex court upheld the Court of Appeal’s decision and ordered that the case be sent back to the chief judge of the Federal High Court for re-assignment to another judge.
