KUNLE OLUTAYO
A Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Tuesday, adjourned to November 14, for the adoption of written addresses in the trial of former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, over alleged N338.8m money laundering.
Justice Muhammad Lima fixed the date after the tendering of the Certified True Copy of court proceedings of 2014, before Justice Ibrahim Buba.
The case, which was earlier scheduled for Monday, did not go on as the court didn’t sit.
When the matter came up on Tuesday, the defendant tendered the certified true copy of the 2014 proceedings through Mr Adewale Olatunji the former chief accountant of the Lagos state House of Assembly who was subpoenaed by the court.
On the last adjourned date on May 4, 2023, the defendant had told the court that his trial was politically motivated.
He told the court while he was defending himself in a no-case submission filed before Justice Muhammad Lima.
The defendant who denied the money laundering allegation preferred against him, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said the initial allegations made against him by EFCC were fraud and misappropriation of funds, which the Commission later turned to money laundering.
He said, “It is a pity that I am standing trial today based on a faceless petition, that has no name or address of the writer, who alleged that I committed fraud or misappropriated the sum of over N7bn.”
Ikuforiji had said that as a three-term Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, if he had indeed committed such an infraction, his case will not first get to the EFCC for trial,as members of the House would have dealt with him, by first impeaching him and hand him over to law enforcement agency.
He had further stated that as the Head of the legislative arm of government, his role in any financial issue is to give final approval on any memo put before him, after the office of the clerk and that of the finance department have done their beats.
“I don’t handle cash or disbursement of funds, it is the duty of the office of the clerk and the finance department to do that”.
EFCC had arraigned Ikuforiji alongside his former Personal Assistant, Oyebode Atoyebi on 54 counts of charge bordering on the offence.
Both of them had pleaded not guilty and they were allowed to continue on an earlier bail granted to them in 2012 when they were first arraigned.
