9th December, 2020
By Akin Kuponiyi
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria on Wednesday adjourned till February 3, 2021 to decide whether a former clerk of the Lagos State House of Assembly Adewale Taiwo Olatunji will be eligible to testify in the on going re- trial of the former Speaker, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, and his aide Oyebode Atoyebi or not.
They were charged with 54 counts of laundering N338.8 million.
After the cross examination of the first prosecution witness Adewale Adeniyi today, by the defense counsel, Dele Adesina SAN, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC’s prosecutor, Ekene Ihenacho called his next witness, Olatunji, to give evidence, but, Adesina, leading five other lawyers raised an objection that the name of the witness was not among those listed in the proof of evidence.
The presiding Judge, Mohammed Liman, while checking the court’s records was unable to find the name of the witness, thereafter adjourned the case to determine eligibility of Olatunji to give evidence.
The former Speaker and his aide were first arraigned on March 1, 2012 before Justice Okechukwu Okeke on a 20-count charge bordering on misappropriation of funds and money laundering, the charge was later amended and increased from 20 to 54 counts.
The defendants were discharged and acquitted by the court but the anti-graft agency appealed the Judgement up to Supreme Court.
The Apex court in its verdict ordered that the the case should start afresh again by the Federal High Court.