LAGOS – A Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday ordered accelerated hearing in the trial of Speaker Adeyemi Ikuforiji of the Lagos State House of Assembly (LAHA), over alleged money laundering.
Ikuforiji is charged alongside his aide; Oyebode Atoyebi, on an amended 56-count charge bordering on money laundering.
When the case came up on Friday, it could not go on due to the absence of the prosecutor, Chief Godwin Obla, SAN.
He was said to be away on an official assignment.
Justice Ibrahim Buba, therefore, fixed three days for trial: June 4, June 5, and June 6.
The accused were re-arraigned by the EFCC before Buba, on June 24, 2013, following the retirement of Justice Okechukwu Okeke, the former judge.
They had both pleaded not guilty to the charge, and were granted bail in the sum of N1 billion with two sureties each in the sum of N500 million each.
On Nov. 21, 2013, the prosecution opened its case. Obla called on his first witness, Mr Adebayo Adeniyi, a Principal Detective Superintendent, who concluded his evidence before the court on March 18.
In the charge, the accused were alleged to have committed the offence between April 2010 and July 2011.
They were alleged to have committed an illegal act of accepting cash payments of over N273 million from the Assembly, without going through a financial institution.
Ikuforiji was also alleged to have used his position to misappropriate about N500 million of the Assembly’s fund.
The offence, the EFCC said, contravened the provisions of Section 18(a) of the Money Laundering (prohibition) Act, 2011. (NAN)
