Justice
Babatunde Quadri of the Federal High Court Gombe today refused an
application by Danjuma Goje, former governor of Gombe state and five
others to transfer the case of conspiracy and money laundering brought
against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Chris Uche SAN, counsel to the accused persons had approached the court to transfer the case from Gombe to Abuja
citing prevailing insecurity in Gombe and the North East region. In the
supporting affidavit, Uche stated that the spate of kidnappings,
killings, assassinations and bomb blasts in the North East and Gombe in
particular, makes the place unsafe for his clients to have fair hearing.
EFCC
counsel Wahab Shittu, opposed the application, stating that insecurity
is a national challenge, which the security agencies are addressing.
In
his ruling, Justice B.O Quadri dismissed the application for lack of
merit. According to the judge, ‘criminal jurisdiction of crime is
territorial and cannot be amorphous’.
March 7 and 8, 2013 have been fixed for continuation of trial and accelerated hearing.
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