The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday insisted that the N650 million alleged fraud case it instituted against a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mrs Jumoke Akinjide, and two others must be heard at the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court.
The anti-graft agency said motions filed by Akinjide’s co-accused, Senator Ayo Adeseun and Mrs Olanrewaju Otiti, seeking the transfer of the case to the Ibadan Division of the Federal High Court was unmeritorious and should be dismissed.
Arguing the counter affidavits filed by the commission against the two motions, counsel to the EFCC, Nnaemeka Omewa, maintained that the defendants’ rights of being charged in a court within 40km radius of where the alleged offence was committed has been upheld with the filing of a charge against them at a Federal High Court in Ibadan.
He added that all the defendants were also duly arraigned at a Federal High Court in Ibadan before Akinjide’s petition to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Abdul-Kafarati, led to the transfer of the case to Lagos.
“Investigation of this case was done in Lagos and the prosecution has followed the Constitution in arraigning the defendants in Ibadan before the first defendant petitioned the Chief Judge for the transfer of the case to Lagos”, Omewa said.
The prosecution counsel stated that Section 98 (1) (2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) equally forbids the Chief Judge from transferring a case in which the prosecution has already called its witness.
He then urged the court to dismiss the motions and continue with the hearing of the case.
Arguing his client’s motion, Adeseun’s lawyer, Micheal Lana, told the court that every ingredient of the case took place in Ibadan.
He disclosed that his client was not aware of the petition written by Akinjide to the Chief Judge seeking the transfer of the case to Lagos.
“The second defendant (Adeseun) had never asked that the matter should be transferred to Lagos and his consent was never sought by anyone in that regard,” Lana said.
“Everything needed to defend this case including the polling agents in the 1,955 polling units of the senatorial district of my client were scattered across villages in Oyo State. The defendant has no means of bringing those witnesses to Lagos.”
The same point was also canvassed by Otiti’s lawyer, Akinola Ayodeji.
Ayodeji was, however, particular about the fact that he had filed a motion seeking the transfer of the case to Ibadan prior to the re-arraignment of his client in Ibadan.
He said, “We filed our motion before the re-arraignment immediately after the matter was transferred to Lagos.
“The third defendant (Otiti) has 65 witnesses spread over six of the nine local governments covered by the senatorial district in which she contested the election in Oyo State.
“The witnesses to be called are within these six local governments and it will cost a lot of money to bring them to Lagos,” the lawyer told the court.
Ruling on the motions was reserved till November 9.
On January 16, the three defendants were re-arraigned by the anti-graft agency before Justice Muslim Hassan on a 24-count amended charge of alleged N650 million fraud.
