N4.6bn Fraud: Court Adjourns Fani-Kayode, Usman Trial To Jan 26

Justice Daniel Osaigor of the Federal High Court in Lagos was on Wednesday forced to adjourn the money laundering trial of a former minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode and three others to Thursday due to the absence of a prosecution and defence counsel.

Justice Osiagor adjourned the case after he was informed that the prosecution and defence counsel were said to be appearing before the Court of Appeal in an appeal over one of his rulings in the trial.

However, all the defendants were present in court.

Fani-Kayode was arraigned before the court alongside a former Minister of Finance, Mrs Nenadi Usman over a 17-count charge of conspiracy and money laundering.

Other defendants in the trial, which started in 2016, are Yusuf Danjuma, a former Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) and a company, Jointtrust Dimensions Nigeria Ltd.

The defendants, who were accused by the EFCC of laundering the sum of N4.6 billion between January and March 2015 all pleaded not guilty to the charge.

In the charge, the defendants were alleged to have committed the offences between January and March 2015 in Lagos.

They were alleged to have at various times unlawfully retained over N4.6 billion, which they reasonably ought to have known formed part of the proceeds of unlawful acts of stealing and corruption.

In counts 15 to 17, Fani-Kayode and one Olubode Oke, who is said to be at large, were alleged to have made cash payments of about N30 million to one Paste Poster Co (PPC) of No 125 Lewis St., Lagos.

The said payments were alleged to have been made more than the amounts allowed by law without going through a financial institution.

The offences were said to have contravened the provisions of sections 15 (3) (4), 16 (2) (b), and 16 (5) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act, 2012.