Former Speaker, Accused Of Stealing Billions, Knows Fate June 1

<h4>Former Speaker&comma; Accused Of Stealing Billions&comma; Knows Fate June 1<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a> <&sol;strong>has gathered that a former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly&comma; Mr &comma; Adeyemi Ikuforiji&comma; Thursday&comma; denied money laundering charges preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission &lpar;EFCC&rpar; before a Federal High Court&comma; Lagos&comma; saying his trial is politically motivated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Led by his lawyer&comma; Dele Adesina SAN&comma; the former speaker stated this while defending himself in a no – case submission he filed before the court presided over by Justice Muhammad Lima&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While denying the money laundering allegation leveled against him by the Commission&comma; Ikuforiji said the initial allegations made against him by EFCC was fraud and misappropriation of funds&comma; which the Commission later turned to money laundering&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He said ” it is a pity that I am standing trial today based on a faceless petition&comma; that has no name or address of the writer&comma; who alleged that I committed a fraud or misappropriated the sum of over N7 billion&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ikuforiji said that as a three-term Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly&comma; if he had indeed committed such infraction&comma; his case will not first get to the EFCC for trial&comma; as members of the House would have dealt with him&comma; by first impeaching him and hand him over to law enforcement agency&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Denying the allegation of money laundering&comma; levelled against him&comma; Ikuforiji said as the Head of the legislative arm of government&comma; his role in any financial issue is to give final approval on any memo put before him&comma; after the Office of the Clerk and that of the Finance Department have done their beats&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I don’t handle cash&comma; or disbursement of funds&comma; it is the duty of the Office of the Clerk and the Finance Department to do that”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When asked if the 2nd defendant&comma; Oyebode Atoyebi&comma; who was his personal assistant&comma; did collect cash on his behalf&comma; Ikuforiji said &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Atoyebi collect money or cash for the Office of the Speaker&comma; who at that time had over 100 staff&comma; and definitely not for him in person&period; Atoyebi can collect money for the running of the office of the Speaker and allowances of other Staff”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On the status of the employment of the 2nd Defendant&comma; Oyebode Atoyebi&comma; the former Speaker said Atoyebi being a staff of Lagos State was seconded to the office of the Speaker&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Also&comma; giving evidence in the matter&comma; a retiree&comma; who was a former deputy Clerk of the Lagos State House of Assembly&comma; Mr&period; Ibisola Olawoyin Ogayemi admitted that he knows the Defendants&period; Ogayemi confirmed that the Chief Accounting Officer of the House is the Clerk of the House&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On the modalities for financial transactions in the House&comma; the witness said that after the office of the Clerk and that of the Finance Department have done the paper works&comma; they will send it to the Speaker for approval&comma; and after his consent the documents will be returned back to them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He added that on the return of the documents&comma; the Office of the Clerk and the Finance Department will raise invoices and cheques&comma; and subsequently&comma; the bank will bring the cash to the finance department for disbursement in the presence of bank officials and staff of the department to the beneficiaries&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Another witness&comma; Mr&period; Kayode Motunrayo&comma; a former banker from First Bank of Nigeria&comma; corroborated Ogayemi’s evidence&period; Motunrayo told the court that he retired as a branch manager&comma; First bank Agodi Ibadan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He said that when the bank receive cheque for payment from any government institution or agency&comma; including the Oyo State House of Assembly&comma; the bank will take the money down to the finance department of that Agency and carry out the disbursement in conjunction with the officials of the finance department&period; He added that all banks follow that standard procedures&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After listening to parties &comma; the court adjourned the case till June 1 and 2 for continuation of trial&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It would be recalled the the EFCC had arraigned Ikuforiji alongside his former Personal Assistant&comma; Atoyebi on 54 counts charge bordering on the offence&period; Both of them had pleaded not guilty before Justice Mohammed Liman&comma; and were allowed to continue on an earlier bail granted to them in 2012 when they were first arraigned&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On March 17&comma; 2021&comma; the EFCC closed its case after calling the second witness for the prosecution&comma; Mr Adewale Olatunji&comma; a former Clerk of the Lagos House of Assembly&period; The prosecution called only two witnesses in support of its case&period; The case was then adjourned for the defence to open its case and begin its defence&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; Justice Liman was later transferred out of the Lagos Division and is now presiding over the case by fiat&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to the charge&comma; EFCC alleged that the defendants accepted cash payments above the threshold set by the Money Laundering Act&comma; without going through a financial institution&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Commission accused the defendants of conspiring to commit an illegal act of accepting cash payments in the aggregate sum of N338&period;8 million from the House of Assembly without going through a financial institution&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ikuforiji was also accused of using his position to misappropriate funds belonging to the Assembly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The EFCC contended that the defendants committed the offences between April 2010 and July 2011&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;According to the EFCC&comma; the offences contravenes the provisions of Sections 15 &lpar;1d&rpar;&comma; 16&lpar;1d&rpar; and 18 of Money Laundering Act&comma; 2004 and 2011&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;<em><strong>Source&colon; The Gavel<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;