The Lagos Division of the Appeal Court has ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to stop the trial of a former Managing Director of the defunct Intercontinental Bank, Erastus Akingbola, charged with N47.1bn theft before the Ikeja Lagos State High Court.
Akingbola, alongside Bayo Dada, had been charged before Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo on 22 counts relating to the offence.
But the accused through their lawyers, Chief Wole Olanipekubn (SAN), and Prof. Taiwo Osipitan (SAN), had filed a preliminary objection to the charges, wherein they argued that the Lagos State High Court lacked the competence to assume jurisdiction over the matter.
However, in a May 2, 2014, ruling, Lawal-Akapo had dismissed the defendants’ preliminary objection and assumed jurisdiction over the matter.
Dissatisfied, Akingbola and Dada approached the appellate court seeking an order upturning the lower court’s ruling.
Ruling on the appeal on Wednesday, Justice Amina Augie in a judgement supported by Justices Samuel Oseji and Abimbola Obaseki-Adejumo, held that the lower court judge took a narrow view of the matter when it dismissed the appellants’ preliminary objection and assumed jurisdiction over the matter.
According to Augie the decision of the appellate court in the case of Okey Nwosu vs EFCC, where the court stated that the state High Court had no jurisdiction over capital market-related issues, was too instructional to be ignored.
The appellate court berated the trial judge for turning a blind eye to that authority even when it was brought to his attention. Justice Augie said the lower court failed in its duty as an unbiased umpire by it refusing to study thoroughly the processes presented before it.
“It is his duty to examine the materials brought before him. It is the role of the judge to do justice in adjudicating all cases brought before him,” she held.
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