Justice Adamu
Abdu-Kafarati, the chief judge of the Federal High Court, has granted the
request by the president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Paul Usoro, to
have an alleged N1.4 billion case against him transferred to another judge.
The case was filed by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Punch reports that the
action of the chief judge followed Usoro’s letter to him.
The case was therefore
withdrawn from Justice Muslim Hassan of the Federal High Court in Lagos and
re-assigned to Justice Chuka Obiozor of the same court.
The report noted that on
December 18, 2018, the EFCC arraigned Usoro on 10 counts before Justice Hassan.
He was admitted to a N250m bail on the same day.
Before he was arraigned
earlier, Usoro had, through his legal team, led by Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN),
notified Justice Hassan of a December 17, 2018 letter, he wrote to the chief
judge seeking the transfer of his case to another judge.
His reason for this was not
disclosed.
According to Olanipekun,
Usoro wanted the case transferred to either Uyo, Akwa Ibom state capital, or
Abuja.
He added that if the case
would remain in Lagos, it should be transferred to any other judge apart from
the one that was handling it.
However, the prosecuting
counsel for the EFCC, Rotimi Oyedepo, opposed Olanipekun, saying: “My Lord
cannot act in anticipation of a yet-to-be-taken administrative decision of the
Chief Judge to keep this matter in limbo.”
He urged that Usoro be
arraigned on December 18. Justice Hassan agreed with Oyedepo and ruled that
Usoro be arraigned.
The NBA president pleaded
not guilty to the charges and Justice Hassan admitted him to bail and adjourned
till February 5, 2019, for trial.
Legit.ng earlier reported
that Paul Usoro (SAN) was charged with an alleged fraud of N1.4bn by the EFCC.
The NBA boss was charged
before Justice Muslim Hassan of the Federal High Court in Lagos.
No comments:
Post a Comment