The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Shola Olumofe

  • Lekki Gardens: Controversy over defendant’s international passport

    Lekki Gardens: Controversy over defendant’s international passport

    A Lagos High Court in Igbosere Tuesday rejected an international passport tendered by Shola Olumofe, the second defendant in the March 8, 2016 Lekki Gardens building collapse which killed five people.

    Justice Sybil Nwaka observed that the passport presented in fulfilment of Olumofe’s bail differed from what was previously shown to the court.

    Last June 14, Olumofe was docked after a failed bid to prevent his arraignment on the ground, among others, of lack of jurisdiction.

    Explaining Olumofe’s absence for previous proceedings, Oguntade said his client arrived in Nigeria a day earlier following weeks of treatment in The United Kingdom for Type 2 Diabetes and high cholesterol.

    But Justice Nwaka demanded for his international passport as proof of the trip.

    Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) T. K, Shitta-Bey also observed that the Olumofe in the dock was not the Olumofe who received the charge from the prosecution.

    She said the man in the dock was unknown to the prosecution team. Shitta-Bey identified another man sitting in the gallery as Olumofe.

    However, this was resolved when the Olumofe in the dock was identified as a sibling of the man in the gallery.

    After two more adjournments following Olumofe’s challenge of the court’s jurisdiction and competence of the charge, he and seven others, including three firms, were arraigned on Monday.

    They were accused of failing to obtain a building permit for the six-storey building and involuntary manslaughter.

    Following their plea of “not guilty”, Justice Nwaka allowed the defendants except Olumofe to continue enjoying their bail.

    The judge granted Olumofe N100, 000 bail with two sureties in the like sum and remanded him in prison custody till he perfects his bail.

    She ordered all defendants to deposit their international passports with the court within 24 hours.

    On Tuesday, however, Olumofe tendered several documents including a virgin passport to the court registrar.

    This was rejected by the judge.

    She said: “Is this a new international passport‎? Because the one that was tendered in court was a used one and this one is empty.

    “Is he using two passports? I want to see the current international passport that he use to travel out and come in, even if it has expired, I still want to see it.”

    Justice Nwaka also questioned the validity of the addresses and businesses of Olumofe’s sureties.

    She said: “I need the description of the house, you cannot just bring anybody as sureties.

    “Between 4:00pm on Monday that the bail condition was granted, how were you able to get to Badagry and done with the verification?

    “Even if you have done the verification, I will still do my own verification. You cannot just bring documents and dump it before the court. I refuse the bail.”

     

  • Lekki Gardens: Lekki Gardens MD, seven others arraigned for manslaughter 

    Lekki Gardens: Lekki Gardens MD, seven others arraigned for manslaughter 

    …Trial begins October 26

     

    After five weeks and four adjournments, the five persons and three firms allegedly involved in the March 8, 2016 Lekki building collapse which killed five persons were arraigned Monday before a Lagos High Court, Igbosere.

    They were arraigned following Justice Sybil Nwaka’s dismissal of an application challenging the competence of the charge filed against them.

    The first to fifth defendants are Managing Director of Lekki Gardens Estate Limited Richard Nyong, Shola Olumofe, the engineer that supervised the collapsed structure Henry Taiwo Odofin, Omolabake Mortune and Omotilewa Oluwatosin Joseph.

    Others are three limited liability companies: Lekki Gardens Estate Ltd, Get Too Rich Investment Limited a.k.a. GT Rich Investment Limited and HT Insight Solution Limited, which were represented by Nyong Robert and Odofin Taiwo respectively.

    The defendants were brought before Justice Nwaka last May 24, but the charge against them could not be read following an application challenging the court’s jurisdiction.

    Similar applications on June 1, 14 and 29, also stalled their arraignment.

    At the resumption of proceedings yesterday, Justice Nwaka dismissed an application by second defendant Shola Olumofe challenging the competence of the charge.

    Olumofe, through his counsel G. M. Oguntade (SAN), argued on June 24 that the charge was defective for not having the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) seal.

    But upholding the argument of Attorney-General Adeniji Kazeem, who is the lead prosecution counsel, the judge held that the absence of a seal was an irregularity that could be regularised.

    She said processes filed without the NBA stamp are deemed not to be properly served, “but may be deemed valid by a judge.”

    The judge then stood down the matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) T.K. Shitta-Bey to affix her stamp on the charge.

    This cleared the way for the charge to be read to the defendants.

    They were accused of one count of failure to obtain a building permit and five counts of involuntary manslaughter.

    According to the charge, the alleged offences contravene Section 75(1) of the Urban & Regional Planning Development Law of Lagos State, 2015 and Section 224 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

    The defendants pleaded not guilty.

    Kazeem then noted that by their arraignment the defendants’ previous bail had been revoked.

    He said: “Following their arraignment, the defendants are now properly before the court. The bail that the defendants previously enjoy stand revoked. However, we are very aware that except for the second defendants, the others have been cooperating.”

    Kazeem urged the court to impose bail conditions on the second defendant that would ensure his appearance for trial.

    This was not opposed by the defendants.

    In a bench ruling, Justice Nwaka allowed the defendants except the second defendant, Shola Olumofe, to continue enjoying the bail earlier granted them.

    She ordered all defendants to deposit their international passports in the court’s possession within 24 hours.

    The judge admitted Olumofe to bail in the sum of N100, 000 with two sureties in the like sum and ordered that he be remanded in prison custody till he perfects his bail condition

    She adjourned till October 26 for trial. ‎

    Tragedy struck on 10 March, 2016 when a six-storey building under construction by Lekki Gardens in Lekki area of the state collapsed and killed several people.

    The government listed the victims to include William Akpati, Kazeem Ilesanmi, Raphael Ezeh, Saminu Umar and Sunday Ezeh.

    According to the charge, the developer added additional floors to the building against what was approved by government for construction

     

  • Lekki Gardens: Court declares suspect wanted

    Lekki Gardens: Court declares suspect wanted

    A Lagos High Court  sitting in Igbosere on Thursday issued a warrant of arrest on one of the 10 persons standing trial for their involvement in the March 8, 2016 collapse of a building in Lekki Gardens.

    At least five persons were killed in the incident.

    Justice Sybil Nwaka ordered the arrest of Shola Olumofe, who is the second accused person in the case.

    The court had earlier dismissed Olumofe’s motion challenging its jurisdiction.

    Also listed in the case are – Richard Nyong, Henry Odofin, Molabake Mortune, Omotilewa Joseph, Marius Agwu, Lekki Gardens Estate Limited, Get Too Rich Investment Limited, HC Insight Solutions Limited. and Artech Insignia Limited.

    The judge adjourned the accused persons’ arraignment till June 14.

    The accused persons, excluding Olumofe, were brought to court on May 24 but were not arraigned because of Olumofe’s application, challenging the court’s jurisdiction to try the case.

    Olumofe, through his counsel, Chief Richard Oma Ahonaruogho, challenged his inclusion in a six-count multiple charge of failure to obtain building approval and involuntary manslaughter.

  • Lekki Gardens builders’ re-arraignment stalled

    Lekki Gardens builders’ re-arraignment stalled

    A Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere on Wednesday rejected the request to allow a manslaughter charge be read to 10 suspects standing trial for their involvement in the collapse of a six-story building in Lekki, Lagos.

    Justice Sybil Nwaka adjourned proceedings till June 1 to rule on an application filed by second defendant, Shola Olumofe, asking the court to dispense with his appearance until the issue of the court’s jurisdiction is settled.

    The judge said the defendants would remain on the earlier “administrative and judicial bail granted them.”

    The other defendants are – Nyong Richard, Odofin Henry, Molabake Mortune, Omotilewa Joseph, Marius Agwu, Lekki Gardens Estate Limited, Get Too Rich Investment Limited, HC Insight Solutions Limited and Artech Insignia Limited.

    The suspects were brought to court on Wednesday and before the charge could be read out to them, Justice Nwaka observed that Olumofe, Agwu and Artech Insignia were absent.

    The charge sheet sighted by The Nation, marked LD/3808C/2017 and dated February 17, borders on a six-count charge of failure to obtain building approval and involuntary manslaughter.

    The offences contravene Section 75(1) of the Urban & Regional Planning Development Law of Lagos State, 2015 and Section 224 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

    Olumofe’s counsel, Chief Richard Ohonarogu, said his client was unaware of the arraignment and thought the proceedings were for the hearing of two motions he filed last February 27 and April 10.

    The state Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General, Adeniji Kazeem, who is the prosecution counsel, said the business of the day was arraignment and urged the court to issue arrest warrant for absent defendants.

    Relying on the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos (ACJL) 2015, Kazeem said: “The business of the day is not to take preliminary objections, it is arraignment. The operational law guiding criminal matters is the ACJL 2015.

    “All the suspects are on joint information. The three defendants’ non-appearance has effectively truncated today’s arraignment.

    “The court is empowered to issue a warrant for the suspects’ arrest. We want to apply for a warrant for the arrest of the second, fifth and tenth defendants so they can be brought to court.”