The Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, has fixed June 27, 2024, for the arraignment of former Kogi State governor, Mr Yahaya Bello.
The new date was fixed at the instance of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) without informing the defendant’s lawyers.
When the case came up yesterday, the counsel to Yahaya Bello, Adeola Adedipe (SAN), said the EFCC lawyers approached Aliyu AbdulWahab (SAN), who is the counsel for the defendant, that the June 13 date would not be convenient for them to proceed and that Wahab had to agree by way of convenience for another date to be set.
He said he was surprised when he heard that Rotimi Oyedepo was in court.
“They (EFCC) agreed that a junior counsel would be sent to court today to pick a date formally, and the registry can confirm this,” Adedipe said.
“Kemi Pinheiro (SAN) has been calling us to say today is inconvenient,” he added. “Kemi Pinheiro is the lead counsel.”
However, the EFCC’s decision to seek an adjournment to a future date for his arraignment caused Governor Yahaya Bello to be said to be ready to appear in court.
“Under 266 ACJA, there are instances when defendants don’t need to come, and this is one of them.
“We came here to pick a date. Of what use will the defendant coming here be? The prosecuting counsel approached us, but we did not approach them. We have nothing to hide,” Adedipe noted.
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal has set aside the contempt proceedings initiated by Bello against the EFCC chairman.
Justice Oyewole set aside the proceedings yesterday while overruling the Respondent’s preliminary objection, citing technicalities.
The Appeal Court said the trial judge failed to extend the orders of 9/2/2024 in its final Judgment of 17/4/2024.
He said the second issue raised by the respondent on the interim order had become an academic exercise.
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