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The judge said the EFCC had proved a prima facie case against the accused.
Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja, has dismissed an application by Erastus Akingbola to quash the fraud charges against him.
The former Managing Director of the now defunct Intercontinental Bank Plc had urged the court to strike out all the charges against him.
He said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, could not establish a prima facie case against him.
Mr. Akingbola further said that all the counts brought against him were under the Lagos State criminal code, and there was no fiat for his prosecution from the state’s Attorney General.
But in his ruling, Mr. Onigbanjo disagreed.
“There is no doubt that there is a prima facie case against the first defendant (Mr. Akingbola) as shown in the proof of evidence, especially in his statement to the EFCC, in August 2010, where he agreed to have stolen sums of money during his tenure as the Chief Executive at Intercontinental Bank Plc,” the judge said.
“I hold it, therefore, that a prima facie case has been established against the first defendant. The ground of the application fails and is hereby struck out.
“The counts against him are unambiguous in accusing him of misappropriation of funds at Intercontinental Bank,” he added.
Mr. Akingbola and Bayo Dada are facing a 22-count charge of stealing N47 billion belonging to Intercontinental bank Plc.
In his ten ground affidavit to quash the charges preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Akingbola maintained that the charges do not warrant him being taken to trial.
The judge described Mr. Akingbola’s application to strike out all the charges against him as “an abuse of court process.”
The defendants had filed a similar application before Habeeb Abiru, before he was elevated to the Court of Appeal; and it was struck out then.
They approached the Court of Appeal and the court upheld the ruling of the lower court.
Mr. Onigbanjo said that the high court is lower in hierarchy than the appellate court and going against it would amount to “judicial flip flop.”
“The decisions of the Court of Appeal still remain valid,” Mr. Onigbanjo said.
“Since the applicant is challenging the propriety of the charges against him, he ought to have raised it earlier in the proceeding before taking his plea,” he added.
The trial of Mr. Akingbola, as well as Bayo Dada, his co-accused, had been fixed for three days in July – 10, 15, and 18.
Mr. Dada’s, the General Manager of Tropics Finance Ltd, similar application to quash the fraud charges against him were dismissed last week; with the judge accusing him of abusing court process.
After his ruling, the judge rose, and asked both prosecution and defendants’ counsels to see him in his chamber.
When they returned, Mr. Onigbanjo vacated the trial dates he had fixed and adjourned till September 19 for mention.
The judge attributed the impending court vacation and an undisclosed “issue” for the adjournment.
“Between now and then, the issue would have been resolved and we can fix trial dates,” the judge said.
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