Court reserves judgement in 12-year trial of former Lagos speaker

The Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday fixed 3 June for judgement in the money laundering case against a former Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji.

The trial with a chequered history has lasted over 12 years, journeying to and back from the Supreme Court within the period. It passed through two trial judges before the last one that has now fixed it for final judgement.

The trial judge, Mohammed Liman, fixed the date after the prosecution and the defence adopted their written addresses during a virtual court hearing via Zoom.

Mr Ikuforiji is charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alongside his former Personal Assistant, Oyebode Atoyebi.

They are facing 54 charges of laundering involving N338.8 million.

They, however, pleaded not guilty before Mr Liman, who allowed them to continue on bail granted them in 2012 when they were first arraigned.

EFCC closed its case on 17 March 2021, after calling two witnesses.

The defence counsel, Dele Adesina, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), opened his clients’ defence on 4 May 2023.

He called three witnesses, including Mr Ikuforiji, who testified that he was being prosecuted based on a faceless petition.

Mr Ikuforiji had told the court 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.

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12-year journey

The defendants were first arraigned on 1 March 2012, over 12 years ago, before Okechukwu Okeke, a now retired judge of the Federal High Court in Lagos. They were arraigned on 20 counts of money laundering.

The charges revolved around allegations of receiving millions of naira in cash beyond the threshold of cash transaction stipulated in the anti-money laundering law from the House of Assembly without passing through a financial institution.

The EFCC said the alleged offence contravened Section 18 (a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011

They pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted bail by Okeke.

The defendants were later re-arraigned before Ibrahim Buba, following re-assignment of the case.

Mr Buba granted them bail in the sum of N500 million each, with two sureties in like sum.

On 26 September 2014, Mr Buba discharged Ikuforiji and his aide after upholding their no-case submissions.

Mr Buba had held that EFCC failed to establish a prima-facie case against them.

Dissatisfied with the judgement, EFCC through its counsel, Godwin Obla, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), filed an appeal dated 30 September 2014 against the judgement.

Mr Obla argued in the appeal 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 further argued that the trial court erred in law when it held that provisions of Section 1 of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act of 2004 and 2011 only applied to natural persons and corporate bodies other than government.

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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 fresh trial of the defendants before another judge.

Following the decision of the Court of Appeal, the defendants headed for the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

In its verdict, the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal and ordered that the case should be sent back to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for re-assignment to another judge.

According to EFCC, the defendants accepted cash payments above the threshold set by the Money Laundering Act.

The commission also accused the defendants of conspiring to illegally accept cash payments in the aggregate sum of N338.8 million from Lagos State House of Assembly.

It accused Mr Ikuforiji of using his position as the Speaker to misappropriate funds belonging to the Assembly.

The EFCC alleged that the defendants committed the offences from April 2010 to July 2011.

The alleged offences contravene Sections 15 (1d), 16(1d) and 18 of the Money Laundering Act of 2004 and 2011.

(NAN)