MONEY LAUNDERING: Ikuforiji Knows Fate Thursday

Adeyemi Ikuforiji

Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji: loses Chief of staff

By Akin Kuponiyi

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, southwest Nigeria will tomorrow decide whether the 20-count criminal charge of money laundering preferred against the Speaker of Lagos State Assembly, Mr. Adeyemi Sabit Ikuforiji and his aide, Oyebode Alade Atoyebi, should be quashed or not.

Adeyemi Ikuforiji

The ruling of the court follows an application filed before the court by two Lagos Lawyer Abiodun Onidare and Tunde Akinrimisi led by Tayo Oyetibo, SAN, urging the court to quash all the 20-count charge preferred against the accused speaker and his personal Assistant on the ground that all the charges arose from the transaction executed on behalf of the House of Assembly in his capacity as the speaker.

The counsel described the speaker as quasi-government since the action which formed the basis of the charge was carried out on behalf of the State House of Assembly, a tier of the Lagos State government.

His lawyers further argued that an attempt to prosecute Ikuforiji amounted to constitutional impossibility of prosecuting the government itself.

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However, the Economic and Financial Crimes, EFCC, prosecuting counsel, Chief Godwin Obla said Ikuforiji should strive to clear his name by giving evidence to prove his innocence during the trial. “Rather than picking technical holes in the charge, let evidence be led in this case and let the accused person be able to clear his name,” Obla submitted adding, “we must not allow the name of our court to be brought to disrepute. The same thing happened in the case of a former governor freed by our court on technical ground but now languishing in jail in England.”

Obla then urged the court to discountenance the argument canvassed by the defence counsel and dismiss the application that the charge be quashed.

In the said charge filed against the Speaker and his aide, the EFCC alleged that Ikuforiji and Atoyebi sometime between April 2010 and July 2011 accepted various cash payments amounting to N518 million from the House of Assembly without going through a financial institution.

The anti-graft agency says the offence contravened the Money Laundery Act.

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