The arraignment of Stephen Akinretoye, Peter Ololo and Falcon Securities Limited, charged with N43.9bn fraud, was further stalled on Thursday before a Federal High Court in Lagos as the issue of who would prosecute them has yet to be resolved.
Justice Mohammed Idris had on February 23 adjourned the matter till Thursday for the Attorney General of the Federation and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to resolve the dispute as to which of them would prosecute the case.
While Mr. Joseph Daudu (SAN) claimed to have been given a fiat by the AGF, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), to prosecute the suspects, the EFCC, through its lawyer, A.B.C. Ozioko, claimed to be in charge of the case.
Justice Idris had, at the last adjourned date, said the suspects could not be arraigned until the issue of who will prosecute them was resolved.
As of Thursday when the matter came up in court, the AGF and the EFCC had yet to agree. Rather, Daudu filed a motion, urging Justice Idris to declare that the fiat given him to prosecute the suspects was valid and subsisting.
Daudu, in the motion, is also seeking an order restraining Ozioko, either acting by himself or through his employers, the EFCC, or their assigns and successors, from interfering with the performance of his professional duties during the pendency of the fiat or other like document given to him.
He also urged the court to declare that the fiat given to him by the AGF ‘precludes every other legal practitioners in Nigeria from prosecuting the matter except the Hon. AGF himself’.
Justice Idris adjourned till April 18 to hear Daudu’s motion, which has to be determined before the coast would be clear for the arraignment of the suspects.
PUNCH NEWS
