{"id":2623,"date":"2013-04-24T11:34:30","date_gmt":"2013-04-24T11:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigerian-newspapers\/efcc-vs-ikuforiji-court-adjourns-indefinitely\/"},"modified":"2013-04-24T11:34:30","modified_gmt":"2013-04-24T11:34:30","slug":"efcc-vs-ikuforiji-court-adjourns-indefinitely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/efcc-vs-ikuforiji-court-adjourns-indefinitely\/","title":{"rendered":"EFCC vs Ikuforiji: Court adjourns indefinitely"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The trial of Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, for alleged money laundering, has been adjourned sine dine (indefinitely).<\/p>\n

Justice Okechukwu Okeke of the Federal High Court, Lagos, said the case will be assigned to a new judge.<\/p>\n

He accused the prosecution of deliberately delaying the case, saying the court is being “blackmailed”.<\/p>\n

“The case has witnessed an unprecedented delay by the prosecution,” the judge said.<\/p>\n

With the transfer of the case, the defendants will be re-arraigned and trial will begin de novo (afresh).<\/p>\n

Justice Okeke gave the ruling without any application by any of the parties.<\/p>\n

He will retire on May 18, sources said.<\/p>\n

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) charged the Speaker and his aide Oyebode Alade Atoyebi with allegedly accepting over N500million from the Assembly.<\/p>\n

It said they did so without passing through a financial institution, an allegation the defendants denied.<\/p>\n

But most of the adjournments have been at the instance of the prosecution, leading the defence counsel to ask that the matter be struck out for want of diligent prosecution.<\/p>\n

Ikuforiji\u00e2s counsel Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) recalled that on October 21, last year, the court had indicated that it was prepared to hear the matter from day to day.<\/p>\n

The prosecution failed to show up on 20th of November, 2012. We lost at least 15 days at the instance of the prosecution,” he said.<\/p>\n

EFCC’s lead counsel, Godwin Obla, later withdrew from the case, saying the scheduled dates for trial (13 days in March) did not favour him.<\/p>\n

I submit that the defence has never asked for an adjournment in this matter.<\/p>\n

“This is a case where the defendant is begging to be prosecuted. I urge your lordship to dismiss this case,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Oyetibo said.<\/p>\n

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Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. <\/a>A DisNaija.Com<\/a> network.<\/p>\n

Source: The Nation Newspaper<\/p>\n

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