Akingbola remanded in EFCC custody by court

A Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja on Monday put in the dock, a former Chief Executive Officer of Intercontinental Bank Plc, Mr. Erastus Akingbola, and one Mr. Bayo Dada alleged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to have stolen the sum of N47.1bn belonging to the bank.


The arraignment of the accused persons on a 29-count charge of stealing before the trial judge, Justice Habeeb Abiru, however, could not proceed as there was a pending application for stay of proceedings filed by them before the court for ruling.

Akingbola’s wife, Anthonia, who was alleged to have conspired with his husband in the crime, was not in court as she was said to still be at large and had been declared wanted by the EFCC.

Justice Abiru adjourned the matter till May 23 to enable the defence to file a reply to the written address by the prosecution objecting the application and to entertain other pending issues.

The arraignment of the defendants will now depend on the ruling of the court on the application.

The EFCC had arrived the court premises with the accused persons at around 8.30am in a coaster bus with registration number, Kaduna AJ134SBJ, about two hours before the hearing commenced, apparently to avoid the challenges which its lateness in bringing them to court last week presented.

Before the accused persons were put in the dock, Justice Abiru had wondered why they were sitting in the court room instead of being in the dock.

The lead counsel to the accused persons, Mr.Felix Fagbohungbe (SAN), told the court that the accused persons could not be put in the dock since they were yet to be arraigned and that there was a pending application for a stay of proceedings before the court.

“My clients are yet to be arraigned, at least the matter went on last week even when they were not in court. If they are in court, they are only here to watch the proceedings,” Fagbohungbe said.

Mr. Kola Awodein (SAN), lead counsel to EFCC, argued that an accused person must be put in the dock once he was brought before the court.

“According to Section 210 of Administration of Criminal Law, when a defendant is in court, he should be put in the dock,” he said.

Justice Abiru after entertaining the lawyers’ arguments, ruled that the accused persons should be put in the dock.

The stay of proceedings which the defence had filed before the last sitting on May 10 was on the grounds that the accused persons were being charged with offences for which they were already standing trial before Justice Charles Archibong of the Federal High Court in Lagos and that the judge had ordered their release.

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