{"id":18718,"date":"2019-12-11T18:40:48","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T18:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/nigeria\/?p=18718"},"modified":"2019-12-11T18:40:48","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T18:40:48","slug":"efcc-re-arraigns-lagos-ex-speaker-ikuforiji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/efcc-re-arraigns-lagos-ex-speaker-ikuforiji","title":{"rendered":"EFCC re-arraigns Lagos Ex-Speaker, Ikuforiji"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Lagos Zonal office, Wednesday re-arraigned a former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji over alleged conspiracy and N338.8 million money laundering.<\/p>\n

DAILY POST learnt that Ikuforiji was arraigned alongside his former aide, Oyebode Alade.<\/p>\n

The duo were brought before Justice Mohammad Liman of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos.<\/p>\n

EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren said this in a statement in Abuja.<\/p>\n

Uwujaren explained, \u201cThe defendants were first arraigned on March 1, 2012 before Justice Okechukwu Okeke on a 20-count charge bordering on funds misappropriation and money laundering, to which they pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendants were subsequently re-arraigned before Justice Ibrahim Buba, following a re-assignment of the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cJustice Buba, on September 26, 2014, discharged the defendants of the charges, after upholding their no-case submission.<\/p>\n

\u201cDissatisfied with the ruling, the EFCC<\/a> filed a notice of appeal at the Appeal Court, Lagos Division, on September 30, 2014, challenging the decision of the trial court.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn its appeal, the Commission submitted that the trial Judge erred in law when he held that the counts were incompetent because they were filed under Section 1(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004, which was repealed by an Act of 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Commission also argued that the lower court erred in law when it held that the provisions of Section 1 of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004 and 2011, only applied to natural persons and corporate bodies other than the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Commission further submitted that the trial judge erred in law by holding that the testimonies of prosecution witnesses supported the innocence of the defendants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Appellate Court, in its judgement sometime in November 2016, upheld the appeal and ordered a re-trial of the case before another judge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn view of this, the defendants approached the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the ruling of the Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe apex court, in its verdict, upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal and ordered that the case be sent back to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for assignment\u201d.<\/p>\n

One of the counts reads: \u201cThat you, Rt. Honourable Adeyemi Sabit Ikuforiji and Oyebode Alade Atoyebi, sometime between April 2010 and July 2011 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable court, conspired among yourselves to do an illegal act to wit: accepting various cash payments amounting in the aggregate to the sum of N338, 801, 442 (Three Hundred and Thirty-Eight Million, Eight Hundred and One Thousand, Four Hundred and Forty Two Naira only) from the Lagos State House of Assembly without going through a financial institution and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18 (a) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 and punishable under Section 16 (2) (b) of same Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the defendants reportedly pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against them by the EFCC.<\/p>\n

It was on this premise that the prosecution counsel, Ekene Iheanacho, asked the court for a trial date and prayed the court to remand the defendants in the Correctional Centre, pending the outcome of the case.<\/p>\n

But Counsel to the defendants, Dele Adesina, SAN, prayed the court to allow the defendants to continue to enjoy the bail granted them by the former trial judge, Justice Ibrahim Buba.<\/p>\n

However, in his response, the prosecution counsel, Iheanacho told the court that the defence should have filed a fresh application for bail rather than relying on Justice Buba\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n

Justice Liman, after listening to the ensued legal fireworks held, \u201c the court will allow the defendants to continue to enjoy the bail granted to them by Justice Buba \u201d.<\/p>\n

Justice Liman also gave 14 days to the sureties to the defendants to appear before the court before a pronouncement could be made regarding the defendants\u2019 prayers for bail.<\/p>\n

Presiding Justice Liman also adjourned the case till February 9 and March 5, 2020 for commencement of trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Lagos Zonal office, Wednesday re-arraigned a former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji over alleged conspiracy and N338.8 million money laundering. DAILY POST learnt that Ikuforiji was arraigned alongside his former aide, Oyebode Alade. The duo were brought before Justice Mohammad Liman of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":18720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,15],"tags":[287,68,206],"class_list":["post-18718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-assembly","tag-efcc","tag-lagos"],"yoast_head":"\nEFCC re-arraigns Lagos Ex-Speaker, Ikuforiji - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Lagos Zonal office, Wednesday re-arraigned a former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/efcc-re-arraigns-lagos-ex-speaker-ikuforiji\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EFCC re-arraigns Lagos Ex-Speaker, Ikuforiji\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Lagos Zonal office, Wednesday re-arraigned a former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/efcc-re-arraigns-lagos-ex-speaker-ikuforiji\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-12-11T18:40:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2019\/12\/Ikuforiji.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"alico\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"alico\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/efcc-re-arraigns-lagos-ex-speaker-ikuforiji#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/efcc-re-arraigns-lagos-ex-speaker-ikuforiji\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"alico\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/50afd2ef4f0e900bd0a176404a8484a7\"},\"headline\":\"EFCC re-arraigns Lagos Ex-Speaker, Ikuforiji\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-11T18:40:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/efcc-re-arraigns-lagos-ex-speaker-ikuforiji\"},\"wordCount\":633,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/efcc-re-arraigns-lagos-ex-speaker-ikuforiji#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2019\/12\/Ikuforiji.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Assembly\",\"EFCC\",\"Lagos\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/efcc-re-arraigns-lagos-ex-speaker-ikuforiji#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/efcc-re-arraigns-lagos-ex-speaker-ikuforiji\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/efcc-re-arraigns-lagos-ex-speaker-ikuforiji\",\"name\":\"EFCC re-arraigns Lagos Ex-Speaker, Ikuforiji - 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