A Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday fixed April 18 for
continuation of trial of former NIMASA boss, Patrick Akpobolokemi and
five others, charged with N2.6 billion theft.
Justice Ibrahim Buba, who adjourned the case, which was earlier fixed
for trial to the new date at the instance of the court, said the court
was saddled with much workload and so, fixed continuation of trial on
the next adjourned date.
In another development, the EFCC has denied being the source of the
online medium, which recently published a report that Justice Abdul
Kafarati had been bribed to rule in favour of Senate President, Dr.
Bukola Saraki.
Justice Kafarati of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had according to
media reports, declined ruling in the fundamental human rights
enforcement case brought before him by Senate President Saraki on the
grounds that an online news medium had alleged that he had been bribed
to rule in Saraki’s favour.
A statement by EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said: “Justice
Kafarati, according reports in ThisDay newspaper of March 23, 2016
claimed the online platform quoted the EFCC as the source of its
information.
“Against this background, it has become necessary to state that the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had no hand in the
report which is entirely the imagination of the authors.
“All allusions to the commission’s investigation or documents in the
said publication should be disregarded. At no time did the EFCC share
intelligence or revealed the content of any dossier it may have on any
judge for that matter with any media organisation either in Nigeria or
abroad.
“The commission wishes to state for the umpteenth time that it
believes in the rule of law and will not take extra-legal measures to
ridicule or embarrass any member of the public that may or may not be
under investigation. The court is the final arbiter in cases of
corruption. What the law expects of the commission, which it has been
doing, is to charge people investigated and indicted of any offence
under the relevant laws to court. There is no other way.”