The Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC,
yesterday arraigned the
Personal Assistant to the Lagos
State Speaker, Hon Adeyemi Ikuforiji, Mr Oyebode Atoyebi
over alleged stealing of N65
million belonging to Resourcery
BDC Ltd. Atoyebi, was charged along with
a former regional manager of
Intercontinental Bank Plc (now
Access Bank Plc), Olayinka Sanni,
on a two count charge of
stealing the money. Sanni and Atoyebi were said to
have on June 29, 2011 conspired
among themselves to commit
felony to wit: stealing N32.5
million property of Resourcery
BDC Ltd. The duo, who are also facing a
N672 million fraud charge before
Justice Deborah Oluwayemi,
however, pleaded not guilty. Counsel to Atoyebi, Mr. Abiodun
Onidare, asked the court to
grant his client bail, noting that
Section 249 of the Administration
of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) of
Lagos State 2011 gives only Lagos State the power to
prosecute such matters in the
state High Court and not EFCC. However, Counsel to Sanni, Chief
Sobo Sowemimo SAN, in his
application, urged the court to
grant his client bail since he will
not jump bail, saying that the
EFCC had earlier granted him administrative bail which he did
not jump. “The applicant (Sanni) has no
criminal record and he is in poor
health which further detention
will compound matter. I
graciously urge your Lordship to
grant the defendant bail,” Sowemimo added. He argued that Sanni was
granted bail by Justice Lateefat
Okunnu on similar proceeding
and urged the court to be bound
by the same terms under which
his client was admitted to bail, adding that if his client had
committed the alleged offence, it
should be the Lagos State
Government that would
prosecute in such circumstances. “If EFCC wants to initiate such
proceedings, they should go to
the Federal High Court. If you are
intiating any proceeding in the
Lagos High Court, it has to be in
the name of Lagos State and not Federal Republic of Nigeria, FRN,”
Sowemimo said. Opposing the application of
defence lawyers, EFCC
prosecutor, Mr. Oyedepo Rotimi,
argued that they cannot raise
an objection after the plea of
their client has been taken with their consent. Citing FRN vs Bode George (2011)
10 NWLR, part 1254 page 1, Rotimi
said that EFCC was a common
agency for both Federal
Government and state
governments, and urged the court to commence trial. “Raising this objection today is
to delay trial. We have two
witnesses here in court and if my
Lordship gives another
adjournment, I would be closing
my case because I am not calling more than four witnesses. I do
not know any miscarriage of
justice anybody would suffer if
the matter is prosecuted by FRN
or by Lagos State,” he added. On the defendants’ bail
application, Rotimi urged the
court not to be bound by Justice
Okunnu’s ruling, stressing that
the grounds which Sanni was
granted bail was not same with charge LCD/177/2012. “In this case, we have what it
takes to convince this court and
I did not take part in that
prosecution,” he further added. After listening to the argument
of all the counsel, the judge
adjourned the case till February
13 for both continuation of
argument and ruling.
www.vanguardngr.com/2013/02/n65m-alleged-theft-efcc-arraigns-speakers-pa/