The Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, on Thursday, adjourned the arraignment of the immediate-past governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, on an alleged money laundering case instituted against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to June 27, following an agreement by the counsels to both parties.
A new date, June 27, had earlier been reportedly fixed for arraignment at the instance of the EFCC counsels.
There was, however, a mild drama in court when Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, announced appearance for EFCC and claimed ignorance of the agreement.
At the resumed hearing on Thursday, Counsel to the ex-governor, Adeola Adedipe, SAN, told the court that the EFCC lawyers approached AbdulWahab Mohammed, SAN, who is the counsel for the defendant, that the June 13 date would not be convenient for them to proceed and that they had to agree by way of convenience for another date to be set.
Adedipe, SAN, who was in court for another matter, was surprised when he heard that Oyedepo, SAN, was in court for the same Yahaya Bello/EFCC case.
“They (EFCC) agreed that junior counsels would be sent to court today to formally pick a date. And the registry can confirm this,” Adedipe said.
“Kemi Pinhero, SAN is the lead counsel, he has been calling us to say today is not convenient,” he added.
But, for the decision of the EFCC to seek an adjournment to a future date for his arraignment, ex-governor Yahaya Bello, was said to be ready to appear in court.
“Under 266 ACJA there are instances when defendants don’t need to come and this is one of them. We came here to pick a date. Of what use will the defendant coming here be? It is the prosecuting counsel that approached us, we did not approach them. We have nothing to hide,” Adedipe noted.
In a strange twist, however, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, said he was not aware of any meeting that happened outside the court, that he did not know about the understanding to adjourn till 27th.
Justice Nwite, thereafter, adjourned the case to June 27 after an undertaking by Adedipe, SAN that the defendant would appear on that day.
Justice Nwite said, ordinarily, an agreement outside the court that a new date should be picked should not be enough to ignore the previous undertaking.
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal has set aside contempt proceedings initiated by former Governor Bello against the chairman of EFCC.
Justice Oyewole set aside the proceedings in a unanimous judgement on Thursday while overruling the Respondent’s preliminary objection, citing technicalities.
The Appeal Court said the trial judge failed to extend the Orders of 9/2/2024 in its final judgement of 17/4/2024.
He said the second issue raised by the Respondent on the interim order had become an academic exercise.