BY FOLASHADE KEHINDE
THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has re-arrested a former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, over alleged falsification of documents.
The former minister was quizzed over the same allegation at the Lagos office of the EFCC last week.
He was re-arrested on Tuesday at the Federal High Court, Lagos after a hearing on alleged money laundering charges, which is before Justice Daniel Osiagor.
The case was adjourned until January 24, 2022.
While the defendants stepped out of court, an EFCC investigator, Shehu Shuaibu, as well as the prosecutor, Rotimi Oyedepo, walked up to the former minister, who went with them to the Commission’s office.
The defendants in the trial had appeared before the judge earlier. They include Fani-Kayode, a former Minister of State for Finance, Nenadi Usman; Yusuf Danjuma, who was the Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, and a company, Jointrust Dimentions Nigeria Limited.
The trial could not, however, proceed, owing to the absence of defence counsel, Ferdinand Orbih, representing the First defendant, Mrs Usman.
The prosecutor, Rotimi Oyedepo, did not oppose the request for adjournment but told the judge that the EFCC had recently discovered that all the medical reports of hospitals, including the Kubwa General Hospital in Abuja, previously presented by Fani-Kayode to stall his trial on health grounds, were allegedly fake.
Justice Osiagor held that it was a matter the agency ought to have thrashed out before the court acted on the letters to grant an adjournment, as the court had become functus officio, having performed its function on the matter.
The EFCC preferred the 17-count charge of alleged money laundering totaling N4.6 billion against the defendants in 2016 before Justice Muslim Hassan.
Hassan has been elevated to the Court of Appeal. The case was transferred after the defendants claimed that the judge could be biased as he was formerly a legal officer with the EFCC.
Details later…
