Lagos Speaker Denies Shunning EFCC Invitation

[TGD]

 ... As Court Issues Warrant For His Arrest

SPEAKER of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, has denied reports that he failed to honour a court summons over alleged N7billion fraud case filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

This comes just as a Federal High Court in Lagos presided over by Justice James Tsoho yesterday issued a bench warrant for his arrest and his Personal Assistant, Mr. Oyebode Alade Atoyebi.

A statement by his Special Assistant on Media yesterday reads: "It has come to the attention of the Lagos State House of Assembly that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), may have procured a warrant of arrest from a Lagos High Court to clampdown on the Speaker, on the pretext that he failed to honour a court summons.

"To the best of our knowledge, the Hon. Speaker has not received any court summon up till now, requesting him to show up in any court.

"As a law abiding public officer, he would have definitely honoured such a summons.

The truth of the matter however is that no such thing as a court summons has been received. So, it will be incorrect to insinuate that Ikuforiji refused to honour a court summons of any such.

"As a law abiding public officer, the Hon. Speaker has always made himself available to the top officials of the EFCC since the beginning of the commission's probing of the petitions by some faceless groups regarding an alleged N7billion fraud that was sent to the EFCC some months ago."

The arrest warrant, according to the judge, is to compel the appearance of the duo in court at the next adjourned date to face a criminal charge filed against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Justice Tsoho's order followed an oral application by EFCC's lawyer, Mr. Godwin Obla, who accused the Speaker of reneging on his promise to submit himself to the anti-graft agency.

The EFCC had filed a 20-count charge against Ikuforiji and Atoyebi, and the duo were billed for arraignment before Justice Tsoho yesterday.

When the case came up, Obla told the court that he was informed by the Investigating Police Officer in charge of the matter that the accused persons were requested to present themselves to the EFCC on Thursday, but that they pleaded that they should be allowed to present themselves yesterday.

Obla added that the Speaker and his aide again neglected the undertaking. Based on that, he urged the court to issue a warrant for the accused to be compelled to appear in court, a request, which was granted by the court.

Justice Tsoho adjourned the matter to January 17, 2012 for arraignment of the accused persons.

According to the charges, the EFCC accused the Speaker and his aide of misappropriating the Assembly's funds to the tune of N518.1million.

Ikuforiji, who was charged under the Money Laundering Act, was accused of conspiring with Atoyebi to accept various cash payments from the Assembly without going through financial institution.

The cash payments range from N273.303 million to N8.135 million.



The Guardian