EFCC PROSECUTOR WITHDRAWS FROM IKUFORIJI'S TRIAL

EFCC PROSECUTOR WITHDRAWS FROM IKUFORIJI'S TRIAL 

This is how http://www.punchng.com/ is reporting it.............

Chief Godwin Obla, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission lead counsel in the money laundering charges preferred against the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, has withdrawn from the prosecution team.

Ikuforiji and his personal assistant, Oyebode Atoyebi, are standing trial at the Federal High Court, Lagos for allegedly accepting over N500m from the Assembly without passing through a financial institution.

Obla, in his letter dated April 5, to the court’s registrar, said the manner in which the court fixed dates for the trial would deny him the ability to prosecute diligently the case.

On Tuesday, the withdrawal of Obla, a private lawyer, from the case forced the presiding judge, Justice Okechukwu Okeke, to cancel 13 dates earlier fixed for the continuation of the trial.

The counsel was not present in court on Tuesday and at the previous proceedings of March 25, 2013 when the dates were fixed.

Obla added that the court, in fixing the days, did not consider his commitment in other cases.

He said, “It is important that I draw His Lordship’s attention to the fact that, regrettably, the new dates didn’t take into consideration the dates that I was previously committed in other legal proceedings before various courts and tribunals which dates were communicated in my letter of March 22, 2013.

“The new dates clearly conflict with those long-scheduled obligations.”

He stated that the development “will considerably constrain” his ability to diligently prosecute the matter, and thus advised EFCC to engage another lawyer whose calendar “can accommodate His Lordship’s itinerary”.

Mr. Alli Yusuf, Head of EFCC’s Legal Department, who took over  from Obla, said he was hurriedly drafted into the case following  Obla’s withdrawal.

 Ikuforiji’s counsel, Mr. Tayo Oyetibo (SAN), while accusing the anti-graft agency of handling the case with levity, urged the judge to dismiss the case for lack of diligent prosecution.

“This is a case where the accused person is begging to be prosecuted and the prosecution is running away,” Oyetibo said.

However, the judge, who on March 25, had turned down a similar request, rejected again the application.

The judge, who is due for retirement next month, adjourned the matter till April 24 after Alli sought an adjournment for three weeks to enable him to study the files transferred to them by Obla.
Source: 
THE PUNCH NEWSPAPER