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| Adeyemi Ikuforiji: Will he fulfil his date with the Nigerian Prison soon? |
In less than 48 hours, if the Speaker of the Lagos State
House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, fails to meet the bail conditions set by Justice
Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Lagos, he may end up having a historic
date with the ‘revered’ Nigerian Prison.
Ikuforiji is being tried alongside his personal
assistant, Oyebode Atoyebi, for an alleged money laundering to the tune of N700
million.
The former trial judge, Justice Okechukwu Okeke (now retired),
had earlier granted him bail on self recognition but Justice Buba, who newly
took over the case, imposed a fresh N1bn bail on each of the them on Monday.
It was even learnt that Justice Buba had initially imposed
N5bn bail with two sureties in like sum but it took the intervention of counsel
for the accused persons Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) and Tunde Akinrimisi for him to
reduce the bail sum to N1bn for each of the accused.
It would be recalled that an NGO, Kick Against
Corruption, had petitioned the EFCC, alleging that Ikuforiji misappropriated
the N7billion belonging to the house.
Ikuforiji denied the allegation.
Ever since the case was taken to court, there had been
frequent adjournments without any headway. The development made many to
conclude that the trial will go the way of others. So, the twist now will likely
renew the hope that Ikuforiji’s case may after all be a jinx of most corruption
trials in the country.
When the N1 billion bail condition was announced, what
came to my mind was how the speaker of the House of Assembly that claims to be
living above common standard will be able to get the huge sum. A colleague
quickly pointed out that if the speaker meets the bail condition within the
time frame given by the court, the EFCC must query further the source of the
money and even the sureties!
The corruption case against Ikuforiji is like a
cancerous lump that will not heal. It has really cast a huge shadow on the
integrity of the Lagos State House of Assembly. At a point, some called for the
speaker to resign. But he will not and his party, the Action Congress of Nigeria
(ACN) will not hear anything of that.
His colleagues will also not discuss the issue even in
the media. In an
interview two years ago, a member of the house, Mubashir Obasa
claimed there was no truth in the allegation and that was why the house had not
given it any consideration. Again, the entire members held a world press conference
to establish the innocence of the speaker. A mention of the case within the
vicinity of the Assembly is a taboo! Whereas, a deep feel of the ambiance in
the complex show a kind of division among the lawmakers on one hand and the
general assembly staff on the other.
Sometimes last year, the news was rife that the EFCC was
going to arrest the speaker in the assembly complex if his bid to quash the
warrant of arrest issued on him by the court was not successful. The speaker
rather than preside over the house sitting, he tactically asked his deputy to
do so.
In the course of the day’s proceedings in the house, no mention
was made of Ikuforiji’s where about. When I contacted his media aide, Rotimi
Adebayo, to know his where about, he simply accused those who did not like
Tinubu (former governor of Lagos State) of being behind the speaker’s travail.
Since the trial began, the Lagos Assembly has been
having frequent adjournments and unnecessary recesses whenever the case came up
in court. Although the house claimed this is normal, the generality of
Lagosians and indeed Nigerians feel it is abnormal.
But now that a date has been fixed for the speaker to
take an apartment in prison, will the house ask him to step down?
Events in the next few hours will determine.
The EFCC had, in September, invited Ikuforiji to its
Abuja office, where he was questioned over allegation of misappropriating the
sum of ₦7 billion belonging to the Assembly.
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