Politics
Fani-Kayode to continue trial March 15 for alleged N4.9bn fraud
Nigeria’s former Minister of Aviation and known critic of the Buhari administration, Femi Fani-Kayode, will again have his day in court on March 15.
On that day, a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos will determine if the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), actually has a case against the former Minister.
The ex-minister had been formerly charged by EFFC for money laundering wherein he and a former Minister of State for Finance, Nenadi Usman, and others allegedly transferred N350 million to former Governor Achike Udenwa of Imo State in 2015.
While the date was scheduled by the court after arguments were made by lawyers on admissibility of documents, the 108 cheques were tendered by the counsel to the EFCC, Rotimi Oyedepo through the third prosecution witness, Shuaibu Shehu, an investigator with the Commission.
Read also: INEC Chairman Yakubu confirms 72.7million PVCs collected
However, the move was declined by the counsel to Mr Fani-Kayode, Mr Norrison Quakers, who asked the court to reject the documents on the grounds that they did not agree with Section 379 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 and the Practice Direction of the Federal High Court 2013.
The ruling and proceeding of the trial was scheduled for March 15 by the court while the former Minister of state for Finance, Nenadi Usman, was granted permission by the trial judge, justice Rilwan Aikawa to embark on a trip to the United States after her papers were released.
Mrs Usman, Fani-Kayode, Danjuma Yusuf and a company, Joint Trust Dimensions Limited are facing 17 counts of conspiracy, unlawful retention of proceeds of theft and money laundering.
By Todimu Ogunade…
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