Former Oyo State Governor, Rashidi Ladoja to be re-arraigned over N4.7bn fraud
Former Oyo State Governor, Senator Rashidi Ladoja will be re-arraigned on December 14, 2016, eight years after he was first arraigned for his alleged involvement in a N4.7bn fraud.
Justice Mohammed Idris of a Federal High Court in Lagos fixed the date for Ladoja’s re-arraignment, alongside Waheed Akanbi, after dismissing their application seeking a stay of proceedings on the grounds that they had an appeal at the Supreme Court.
The accused were both present during the ruling on Friday, where Justice Idris also declined to grant EFCC’s application that an arrest warrant be issued for them.
“The court will not make any order for arrest in the light of the appearance of the accused persons in court,” the judge ruled.
Ladoja and Akanbi had challenged the competence of the charges filed against them by the EFCC all the way to the Supreme Court, and on April 15, 2015, the Supreme Court dismissed the Commission’s appeal citing incompetency on its part.
EFCC however moved to reopen the case before Justice Idris following the dismissal by the Supreme Court, a move that was met with strong opposition from Ladoja’s lawyer, Mr. Bolaji Onilenla.
Onilenla said he had, on October 27, 2016, re-listed the appeal granted his client, maintaining that the window of appeal open to Ladoja at the Supreme Court had yet to be exhausted.
He contended that the EFCC could not cut Ladoja’s right of appeal short by rushing to re-open the case.
“What we are saying in effect, My Lord, is that our right of appeal still enures and it cannot be purportedly cut short on the alter of overzealousness of the prosecution to jump-start the trial of the case,” he told Justice Idris.
Justice Idris however dismissed Onilenla’s argument during Friday’s ruling, saying that the request to withhold proceedings pending the outcome of the re-listed appeal before the Supreme Court was against the provisions of Section 306 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.
The judge also dismissed Onilenla’s objection to the appearance of the EFCC lawyer, Mr. Oluwafemi Olabisi, after the lawyer had argued that it was Mr. Festus Keyamo and not Olabisi, who was given the fiat by the EFCC to prosecute the case.
December 14 was subsequently fixed for the arraignment of the defendants.
