Former Oyo State Governor Adebayo
Alao-Akala on Monday asked an Ibadan High Court to quash the corruption
charges levelled against him and two others by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission.
Alao-Akala, alongside his former
Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Senator Hosea
Agboola; and an Ibadan-based contractor, Mr. Olufemi Babalola, of
Pentagon Engineering Services, was arraigned on 11 counts, including
conspiracy, contract scam and other criminal acts to the tune of N25bn
by the EFCC.
The three accused persons appeared in court with a team of four Senior Advocates of Nigeria and 23 other lawyers.
The anti-graft commission objected to the accused persons’s application for the quashing of the charges preferred against them.
The prosecution counsel, Mr. Godwin
Obla, told the court that even though the case was scheduled for hearing
at the day’s sitting, the fresh application by the counsel for the
accused persons lacked credibility.
Obla said the EFCC had already filed a
preliminary objection to challenge the competence of the application.
The EFCC counsel urged the court to take holistic approach in handling
the matter on the ground that “justice is a two-way traffic, for the
accused and for the state.”
He added, “This is a public interest case and for good case management, parties should be enjoined to file written addresses.”
The lead counsel for the accused
persons, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, agreed that there was a need for written
addresses by the two parties but asked for a short adjournment of the
case since he had just been served the preliminary objection by the
prosecution.
Fagbemi said, “There is no need to rush
the court and we cannot sacrifice justice on the altar of speed. We are
asking for time to respond effectively because the accused persons are
facing very serious charges which, if proved, may curtail their liberty.
We do not want to come back and be asking for an extension of time.
“We don’t even know the content of the
additional proof of evidence just filed by the prosecution as it was
handed over to us this morning.”
The prosecution in the preliminary
objection applied to strike out the first, second and third accused
persons’ motion on notice dated 16th December, 2011 for incompetence.
The trial judge, Justice Akintunde
Boade, while adjourning hearing of the case to April 26, urged the two
parties to file their written addresses within the court’s time frame.
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