Court gives EFCC ultimatum on ex Nimasa DG’s Charges

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has given a 7 day adjournment to the prosecution, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to continue with the matter of the former director general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) or have the charges dismissed.

The court presided over by Justice Binta Murtala Nyako gave the lifeline following an application by the accused, the former director general of NIMASA, Mr. Temisan Omatseye  seeking the dismissal of the charges  against him on the grounds that the prosecution had not shown due diligence in prosecuting it.

The EFCC is prosecuting Mr Omatseye on an eleven count charge of alleged corruption charges involving an alleged transfer of the sum of 300,000 pounds from Nimasa’s account to his personal account.

The commission had also alleged that the former NIMASA director general used his position to split tenders and evade his official limit on what he could approve and awarded contracts to ten companies.

At the resumed hearing of the case in court today, Mr. Omatseye’s lawyer, Olusina Sofola rejected a move by a public counsel attached to the EFCC to proceed with the case in the absence of Mr. Godwin Obla who has the fiat of the attorney general of the federation to prosecute the matter.

The defence argued  that only Mr. Obla being the sole recipient of the fiat could proceed with the matter especially as Mr. Obla had indicated at the last adjourned date that he wanted to prosecute the matter himself, a situation which necessitated the adjournment till today despite the fact that another counsel was in court to represent the EFCC.

The defence went on to urge the court to dismiss the charges since the prosecution had demonstrated that it was not diligent in pursuing the matter.

The EFCC counsel in court, Mr. Ben Ubi, however pleaded with the court to grant just another adjournment to either allow the attorney general take a decision on the matter or for Mr. Obla who had travelled on health grounds to return and continue with the case.

In her ruling, presiding Justice Nyako noted that only the attorney general could take away the fiat from Mr. Obla. Shee then acceded to the prosecution’s request and adjourned till the 22nd of march.