Justice Peter Odo Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed April 1 for a fresh arraignment of former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, over the N1.3 billion corruption charge brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Lamido is to be arraigned on the day alongside his two sons,
Aminu Lamido and Mustapha Lamido, who allegedly committed the fraud with their
father through fictitious contract awards.
Justice Lifu fixed the new date on Friday following the
absence of the former governor and his sons in court to take their plea.
Although the fresh arraignment was scheduled to hold on
Friday, the Lamidos counsel, Mr Joe Agi, SAN, apologized for their absence in
court, explaining that information about the trial came on Thursday evening.
He said that the former governor and his children are
resident in Kano and could not make it to the court because of the distance and
lateness of the notice of hearing.
The senior lawyer thereafter undertook to produce the
accused persons on the adjourned date to face their trial.
However, counsel the EFCC, Mr Chile Okoroma, SAN, said he
was taken aback that the three defendants were not in court having been served
with the trial notice.
Okoroma said that EFCC had written a letter to the Chief
Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, demanding that the initial
trial judge, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, now in Calabar on transfer, be brought back
to Abuja for the trial of the defendants.
Justice Lifu said that the issue of EFCC letter was an
administrative one and would be determined by the Chief Judge but fixed April 1
for arraignment.
EFCC had in 2015 charged Lamido, his two sons and their
companies before the Federal High Court in Abuja on 27 counts of money
laundering involving N1.3 billion allegedly siphoned from the state in a money
laundering scheme.
Lamido and his co-defendants allegedly committed the
offences during his time as the governor of the state.
The EFCC said Lamido abused his office between 2007 and 2015
by laundering funds received as kickbacks from state government contracts.
Apart from the Lamidos, other defendants are their
companies, Bamaina Holdings Ltd and Speeds International Ltd.
After EFCC had called more than 16 witnesses and closed its
case, the defendants filed a no‑case submission, arguing that the
prosecution had not presented sufficient evidence to require them to open their
defence.
But trial judge Ijeoma Ojukwu dismissed the submission and
ordered them to enter defence in November 2022.
Lamido, went on appeal against the ruling and in July 2023,
the Court of Appeal upheld the no‑case submission and ruled that the
Federal High Court in Abuja lacked territorial jurisdiction to sit on the case
in the first place.
The Court of Appeal held that the trial should have been
conducted in Jigawa State, where the alleged offences occurred.
However, in August 2023, EFCC proceeeded to the Supreme
Court asking it to overturn the Court of Appeal decision.
The Supreme Court on January 16, 2026 set aside the decision
of the Court of Appeal that discharged Sule Lamido and his sons, Mustapha and
Aminu, of money laundering charges.
A five‑member panel of the apex court
handed down the decision in a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Abubakar
Umar, holding that the defendants had a case to answer.
The Supreme Court ordered that the matter be returned to the
Federal High Court for continuation of trial.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com