Posted: July 10, 2013 -
Wale Babalakin
By SaharaReporters, New York
A legal observer observed that Mr. Babalakin’s lawyer, Abiodun Layonu, was simply playing the “big man’s” card, implying that the attorney was manipulating the system in order to frustrate his client’s trial. “Chief Wale Babalakin and his lawyer want the case to die, with the accused not appearing at all during proceedings,” said the expert. “That’s the way of the corrupt Nigerian judicial system,” he added.
One of the few times Mr. Babalakin was in court was January 17, 2013. Prior to that date, he had played a protracted hide-and-seek game, culminating in his “admission” at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) were deployed to the hospital to keep a close watch over him, to ensure that he did not sneak out of the hospital.
On November 29, 2012, Mr. Babalakin pulled off one of his legal tricks. He failed to appear in court as his lawyer claimed that he was too ill to show up. Meanwhile, the same Babalakin was sighted the same day at the Federal High Court obtaining an administrative injunction to prohibit the continuation of his prosecution by the EFCC.
In one appearance, Mr. Babalakin stormed the court with a troupe of “prayer warriors” adorned in white garments and humming incantations in the courtroom as the court registrar read out each of the 27 counts against him. Later in February, his defense attorney failed to persuade Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo to allow his client to sit outside the dock. The accused businessman then used his clout and influence to engineer bail terms that one judicial expert described as “unusually soft,” including securing the release of his international passport. In a ruling punctuated with jokes, Justice Onigbanjo granted the bail request, stating that Mr. Babalakin could walk on the basis of self-recognition as a former university pro-chancellor, among other titles the accused executive touted in court.
Since being granted bail, Mr. Babalakin has used a variety of legal ruses and maneuvers to avoid appearing in court. When he failed to show up at a May 7, 2013 hearing, his lawyer claimed that he had missed his flight from Abuja that morning.
In addition to his serial “no-shows” in court, Mr. Babalakin has filed several applications seeking to quash the charges against him. In one of the applications, he asserted that the case should cease since he had filed an appeal at an appellate court. But Justice Onigbanjo was not impressed, ruling that, since the case at the state court was not going to cause irreparable harm, it would continue.
In the renewed game of ‘no show’ in court today, defense counsel, Mr. Layonu again pushed for “quashing” the charges, adding that Mr. Babalakin was too ill to appear in court. He told the court that the fraud suspect was somewhere in the vicinity of the court, but was on crutches. He told the trial judge that Mr. Babalakin would require a wheel chair to ferry him into the courtroom.
“Chief Babalakin’s antecedents clearly indicate that he is avoiding his duty to appear in court to answer to the charges against him,” said an analyst, a Lagos-based lawyer. He added: “The man is averse to sitting in the dock. He considers himself too big to be put in the dock, so he feigns sickness. That is the kind of mockery of the law that we are seeing in this country.”
The court fixed September 23, 2013 to rule on the fraud suspect’s application to dismiss the charges against him.
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