THE Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday rejected a motion by a former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, to suspend his trial for alleged fraud pending the determination of his request for the case to be transferred to Abuja.
Justice RilwanAikawa, however, granted an application by former Minister of State for Finance, Senator Nenadi Usman, for the release of her international passport to enable her travel abroad for a medical appointment.
Usman, the judge said, was permitted to travel for three weeks between July and August to the United States but must surrender her passport to the court not later than August 31, 2017.
The court also allowed the prosecution to call its first witness, Olusegun Idowu, who testified against the defendants.
Usman, Fani-Kayode, one Danjuma Yusuf and a firm, Joint Trust Dimensions Limited, were brought on June 28, before Justice Muslim Hassan’s court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
They were arraigned on a seven-count charge of conspiracy, unlawful retention of proceeds of theft and laundering of N4.9billion.
Fani-Kayode, who was the director of Publicity of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s presidential campaign organisation for the 2015 election, was accused of conspiring with the others to directly and indirectly retain various sums, which the EFCC claimed they ought to have reasonably known were proceeds of crime.
The four were also accused of indirectly retaining N300 million, N400 million and N800 million, all proceeds of corruption, according to the EFCC.
The agency said they allegedly committed the offence between January 8 and March 25, 2015, ahead of the 2015 general elections.
But Fani-Kayode objected to being tried before Justice Hassan and the defendants were re-arraigned before Justice Aikawa on May 15, on a similar charge.
They pleaded not guilty and the judge adjourned till yesterday for a hearing of Usman’s application for the release of her travel documents and beginning of trial.
However, when proceedings started yesterday, Fani-Kayode’s counsel Norrison Quakers, SAN informed the court that it was yet to rule on a pending application for the case to be moved to the Abuja division of the court.
Although Justice Aikawa said the application was not in the court’s file, Quakers insisted that the application was filed on the day of the defendants’ re-arraignment and had been received and acknowledged by the EFCC.
The application, Quakers said, was jurisdictional in scope and should be determined before trial could commence.
Quakers said: “Practice direction is clear on this matter. This is what the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, in his wisdom, has formulated. The rule is recognised by Section 490(d) of the Administration of Criminal Justice LAW (2015). Rules of court are meant to be obeyed.
“There is a practice direction that guides the Federal High Court in situations like this. The direction says the court will not commence trial until the defendant’s application is taken, one way or another. It is trite that jurisdiction is the life of any adjudication. The second defendant (Fani-Kayode) has not said he does not want to be tried, he is saying he does not want to be tried in Lagos.
“Your Lordship is bound by Rules of Court, the ACJL and judicial pronouncements on the issue to determine it one way or another.”
He argued among others that the CJ’s power to make the practice rules flowed from Section 490 of the ACJL pursuant to Section 254 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
But Oyedepo, relying on Section 396 of the ACJL, argued, among others, that Quakers’ position was not correct in law.
He said: “I submit that it would amount to turning the law upside down to say that the substantive issue, which is the allegation as contained in the charge, cannot be taken without determining the application. Section 396 of the ACJL is higher in hierarchy and takes precedence over the practice direction.
“This application is challenging the competence of this charge in Lagos. What the defendant did was just to lift the same application decided before Justice Hassan and re-filed it here. This application, apart from being a gross abuse of court processes, cannot constitute a stay.”
Ruling, Justice Aikawa upheld the prosecution’s argument that the application could be heard alongside the trial.
He said: “I have listened to the erudite argument of counsel. In my opinion, practice directions, although having the force of subsidiary legislation, are meant to guide the court in criminal trials. Departure from it in some circumstances will not render proceedings fatal if done in the interest of justice and speedy conclusion of trial.”
The court then allowed the prosecution to begin examining its witness.
The witness, who identified himself as a media consultant, said he got two contracts of N24million and N6million from Fani-Kayode through an intermediary, one Olubode Oke.
However, at the prosecution’s request, the court adjourned trial till tomorrow to enable the witness bring originals of invoices and receipts of the alleged transactions.
