EFCC finally arraigns Akingbola, associate

A former Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank Plc, Mr. Erastus Akingbola, alongside an associate, Mr. Bayo Dada, was on Tuesday arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in a Lagos High Court, sitting in Ikeja.

They were finally arraigned after three adjournments on 22-count charge of stealing as against 29 counts of about N50bn theft earlier filed by the EFCC.

The trial judge, Justice Habeeb Abiru, also ordered the defendants, who had been in the custody of the EFCC since they were re-arrested on May 3 to be remanded in prison custody till the next adjourned date on June 6.

The judge said it was the standard practice to detain an accused person in the prison custody after arraignment especially when the EFCC had declined to further hold the defendants in its custody.

It will be recalled that Akingbola and Dada, after their re-arrest on May 10, were to be arraigned in the court.

The arraignment had been stalled by series of amendments to the defendants’ application with which they were challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the suit and the competence of the information contained in the charge preferred against them.

Justice Abiru, before the arraignment on Tuesday, had earlier in a ruling dismissed the defendants’ application dated May 19.

The defendants, through their lawyer, Mr. Felix Fagbohungbe (SAN), had sought the court to pass an order restraining the EFCC from arraigning them, claiming that the information with which they were charged before the Lagos State High Court was the same with which they were being tried before the Federal High Court, Lagos.

Justice Abiru in his ruling said the sets of information in the suits had nothing in common.

At the four-hour proceedings, the court struck out seven of the initial 29 counts to be answered by Akingbola’s wife, Anthonia.

The prosecution counsels led by Mr. Godwin Obla, had prayed the court during the proceedings to strike out the said counts as Anthonia was said to still be at large.

In the charge, Akingbola was said to have fraudulently converted billions of Naira belonging to Intercontinental Bank Plc to personal use and the use of some companies in which he was a director.

The charge sheet reads in part, “That you Erastus B.O. Akingbola, whilst being the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Intercontinental Bank Plc sometime in March 2009, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this court stole £8,540,434, property of Intercontinental Bank Plc by fraudulently converting same to your own use.”

-Punch

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Posted by admin on May 31 2011. Filed under EFCC Politics, Headlines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry