The retrial of former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, his two sons and others over an alleged N1.35 billion fraud suffered a setback on Friday at the Federal High Court.
The case, which was recently reassigned to Peter Lifu, could not proceed due to the absence of the defendants in court.
Although counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Chile Okoroma, SAN, and counsel to the defendants, Joe Agi, SAN, were present in court, the defendants were conspicuously absent.
Addressing the court, Agi said the hearing notice for the proceedings was received late on Thursday at about 5 p.m.
He explained that the defendants, who are based in Kano State, were unable to travel to Abuja as there was no available flight to convey them.
However, the defence counsel undertook to produce them on the next adjourned date.
Okoroma, who appeared for the EFCC, urged the court to return the matter to the former trial judge, Ijeoma Ojukwu, who had earlier handled the case.
He said a letter had already been written to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to that effect.
In response, Agi said he had not been served with the said letter.
Justice Lifu then asked Okoroma, a former Director of Legal Services at the EFCC, whether he was still in the commission’s employment.
“Are you part of the EFCC? Are you still in the employment of the EFCC?” the judge asked.
“No, my Lord,” Okoroma replied.
Justice Lifu observed that Okoroma’s request implied that Justice Ojukwu should return from Calabar to continue hearing the matter.
The judge noted that the case had been pending since 2015 and stressed the need to commence the trial without further delay.
The Chief Judge assigned the case to me and it is my duty to begin hearing it as an obedient servant,” he said.
He subsequently directed Okoroma to provide Agi with a copy of the letter requesting the reassignment, after which the defence counsel indicated he would raise objections.
The matter was adjourned until April 1 for hearing.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of Nigeria had on January 16 ordered that Lamido and the other defendants face trial over the alleged N1.35 billion fraud.
A five-member panel of the apex court gave the directive in two unanimous judgments delivered in appeals filed by the Federal Government through the EFCC.
The appeals challenged the July 25, 2023 decisions of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which upheld the no-case submission filed by Lamido and the other defendants and struck out the 37-count charge on the ground that the Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.
In the lead judgment, Abubakar Umar set aside the appellate court’s ruling and affirmed the earlier decision of Justice Ojukwu, who had dismissed the no-case submissions and ordered the defendants to enter their defence.
In the 37-count charge, the EFCC accused Lamido of abusing his office as governor between 2007 and 2015 by allegedly laundering funds received as kickbacks from companies awarded contracts by the Jigawa State Government.
The other defendants are Lamido’s sons, Aminu and Mustapha; Aminu Wada Abubakar; and two companies , Bamaina Holdings Ltd and Speeds International Ltd.
