19th October, 2022
By Wandoo Sombo
The Federal High Court, Abuja on Wednesday, insisted that Mr Kanu Agabi (SAN) was the counsel on record representing the former governor of Adamawa, Muritala Nyako in his ongoing N29 billion money laundering case.
Justice Okon Abang, the trial judge, said this in a short ruling following the announcement of Mr Okon Efut as the new counsel for Nyako and his co-defendants and an objection by the prosecutor, Mr Rotimi Jacobs, (SAN).
The presiding judge said that although it was the right of the defendants to engage a counsel of their choice before Efut announced his appearance for the defendants, Agabi had not applied to withdraw from the matter.
“The court has not granted Agabi leave to withdraw from the matter and he has not given the court the three days’ notice required by law for counsel wishing to withdraw appearance from a case.
“The provisions of Section 349 (7) and (8) were not put in the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) for fun or decoration, they are to provide speedy dispensation of justice and effective criminal case management.
“The court is not saying that defendants cannot brief a new counsel but that Agabi must comply with the law before the court can recognise a new counsel.
“So the court still recognises Agabi as the counsel of the first set of defendants,” the judge said.
However, Justice Abang accused the defendants of not acting in good faith as well as not treating the court fairly and taking the court’s desire to give justice as weakness and insisted that “the court is not weak”.
Earlier, when the matter was called Efut announced his appearance saying he was the new counsel representing Nyako, having been briefed to take over the matter on Tuesday at 8:00 PM.
He prayed to the court for an adjournment to enable him to peruse the case file to effectively defend his clients.
Thereafter, Justice Abang adjourned the matter until Nov. 30.