The Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed 1 April for the commencement of the Supreme Court-ordered retrial of former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, his two sons and others on N1.35 billion money laundering charges.
The case was scheduled for re-arraignment before trial judge Peter Lifu today (Friday) but was stalled because of the absence of the defendants, who were previously freed from the charges by the Court of Appeal.
But defence lawyer Joe Agi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), was present at Friday’s proceedings. The prosecution lawyer representing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Chile Okoroma, also a SAN, was present too.
Explaining his clients’ absence, Mr Agi said the hearing notice for the proceedings was received late on Thursday at about 5 p.m.
He said the defendants, who are based in Kano State, could not attend because there was no available flight to convey them to Abuja.
Mr Agi, however, assured the court that the defendants would be present at the next adjourned date.
Prosecution lawyer Mr Okoroma asked called for the reassignment of the case to the former trial judge, Ijeoma Ojukwu, who handled the case before ..
He said a letter had been written to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court requesting the reassignment.
But Mr Agi said he had not seen the letter.
Judge Lifu then asked Mr Okoroma, a former Director of Legal Services at the EFCC, whether he was still in the commission’s employment.
“No, my Lord,” Mr Okoroma replied, indicating that he is now prosecuting the defendants as a private lawyer.
“The basis of your protest is that you want my Lord, Hon. Judge Ojukwu, to come from Calabar to take the case,” Judge Lifu said.
The judge observed that the case had been pending since 2015 and stressed the need to begin hearing without further delay.
“The Chief Judge assigned the case to me and it is my duty to commence hearing as an obedient servant,” he said.
Judge Lifu directed Mr Okoroma to provide Mr Agi with a copy of the letter, as the defence lawyer said he intended to raise objections.
The judge then adjourned the case until 1 April for hearing.
Background
The Supreme Court, had on 16 January, ordered the retrial of the former governor and others over the alleged N1.35 billion fraud.
A five-member panel of the apex court gave the order in two unanimous judgments delivered in the appeals filed by the EFCC in the name of the Federal Government.
The appeals challenged the 25 July 2023 judgements of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which upheld the no-case submissions filed by Mr Lamido and the other defendants and struck out the 37-count charge against them.
The appellate court had ruled that the Federal High Court in Abuja lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.
However, in the lead judgment of the Supreme Court, Judge Abubakar Umar set aside the decisions of the Court of Appeal and affirmed the earlier ruling by Judge Ojukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Judge Ojukwu had dismissed the no-case submissions filed by Mr Lamido and the other defendants and ordered them to enter their defence.
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The case began in 2015 when EFCC charged Mr Lamido, his two sons and their companies before the Federal High Court in Abuja with 37 counts of money laundering involving about N1.35 billion allegedly siphoned from the state in a money laundering scheme.
Mr Lamido and his co-defendants allegedly committed the offences during his time as the governor of the state.
The commission said he abused his office between 2007 and 2015 to launder funds received as kickbacks from state government contracts.
The other defendants are his two sons, Aminu and Mustapha, Aminu Wada Abubakar, and their companies, Bamaina Holdings Ltd and Speeds International Ltd.