A High Court sitting in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will today determine whether former Speaker, House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, and his former deputy, Bayero Nafada,

have a case to answer over the alleged N40 billion loan scam that trailed their exit from office.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting the duo for allegedly using the controversial loan to pay illegal allowances to members of the 6th House of Representatives which both led.

The accused, who are on bail, had asked the court to quash the charge against them.

Justice Suleiman Belgore had at the last proceedings, fixed today for ruling on the no-case application.

The accused also brought another application, seeking the disqualification of the prosecuting counsel, Festus Keyamo, from the trial, accusing him of persecuting them.

The prosecution objected to the two applications.

All the pending applications would be settled today.

The accused, in their no-case submission, contended that the prosecuting counsel had no requisite fiat from the Attorney-General of the Federation to prosecute the trial, which had rendered their arraignment a nullity.

They said there was no AGF in office when the trial was initiated and the law gave only the AGF the prosecutorial power, which he delegates through fiat to private prosecutors.

The prosecution countered that it had been settled in law that the anti-corruption commission could initiate prosecution, adding that the prosecution did not have to be going to the AGF every time it embarked on trials, because the AGF had already delegated prose-cutorial power to the commission.

There had been insinuations that the fresh regulations rolled out by the the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr Bello Adoke, to guide the operations of the anti-corruption agencies was primarily targeted at freeing the accused, a charge the AGF had strenuously denied.

The accused also submitted that they had legislative immunity from prosecution over their actions in office, adding that the disbursed money legitimately belonged to the members.

The commission replied, through Keyamo, that neither the president of the Senate nor the speaker of the House of Representatives had immunity from arrest and prosecution for criminal conduct while discharging their statutory functions.

The clerk of the House of Representatives, Mr Sani Omolori, is the star witness of the prosecution and his witness statement had indicted the accused on the commission of the alleged crime.

In their complaint against Keyamo, the accused noted that the prosecuting counsel took the front row among their accusers in the alleged N2.3 billion car scam, adding that it would be easier for him to be a persecutor rather than a prosecutor that he should be in the trial.

The commission had not taken any step on the alleged N2.3 billion car scam, though its investigation predated the alleged N40 billion loan scam which had now gone on trial.

On his alleged bias, Keyamo had replied that the role of the prosecutor was to establish the guilt of the accused, adding that he could not be stopped from prosecuting the duo, because he had written petitions against them in the past on another matter entirely.

He further asked if an AGF would be stopped from exploiting his prose-cutorial power against an accused, simply because he had been against him on a different case in the past before his appointment as the AGF.

The trial judge is expected to determine whether the trial would continue today and if Keyamo would continue to handle it.

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