 |
| Akala |
An Ibadan High Court on Wednesday declared that
former Oyo State governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, and two others have a case to
answer in a fraud allegation preferred against them by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission.
Alao-Akala and a former Commissioner for Local
Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Chief Hosea Agboola, and an Ibadan-based businessman,
Femi Babalola, are standing trial on allegation of N11.5bn fraud brought
against them by the commission.
The accused are facing 11 counts of conspiracy,
illegal award of contracts, obtaining by false pretence had earlier prayed the
court to quash the charges brought against them by the EFCC among other charges
had earlier prayed the court to quash the charges brought against them by the
EFCC.
Their counsel led by Prince Lateef Fagbemi
(SAN), had filed a preliminary objection to the suit, asking the court to quash
it as it did not disclose any substantial evidence to warrant his clients
trial.
He also asked the presiding judge, Justice
Akintunde Boade, to dismiss the charges, saying it was sheer oppression
and abuse of power to put anybody on trial on the offence that was not proved.
The prosecution led by Mr. Godwin Obla, however,
told the court that the evidence against the accused persons deserved an
explanation.
He, therefore, prayed the court to discountenance
the application seeking to quash the charge.
Boade in his ruling, however, did not dismiss the
charge.
He said, “The three accused persons have some
thing to explain. I am of the strong view that the proof of evidence is
established against the accused persons.”
He added that having taken the pleas of the
accused persons in line with the provision of Section 167 of the Civil
Procedure Law, they could not challenge the jurisdiction of the court.
On the claim by Alao-Akala that he was not a
public officer and so could not be tried by the EFCC, the Boade said the
application to quash the charge lacked merit.
Punch
No comments:
Post a Comment