The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has announced that a new prosecution of three other individuals, including a former Minister of Aviation named Femi Fani-Kayode, will begin in the Federal High Court that is currently sitting in Abuja. The anti-corruption agency is taking the former minister to court over allegations that he laundered money and stole N4.6 billion. The allegations were made by the anti-corruption agency.
Fani-Kayode served as a minister in the government that was led by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but he is now a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a well-known supporter of Bola Tinubu, who will be the next president of Nigeria.
On Tuesday, April 25, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), the attorney for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), told Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Lagos Federal High Court that it became necessary for him to make such a move after the ruling of the appeal court in Lagos that quashed the charges against the APC chieftain over the weekend. The appeal court in Lagos quashed the charges because it found them to be politically motivated. Oyedepo argued that in light of the decision made by the court of appeal, all of the exhibits and documents that the prosecution had submitted ought to be made public. This would allow the commission to reopen the case in front of the Abuja federal high court.
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The judge then gave an order that the EFCC be given access to all of the documents and exhibits that had been presented to the court while the hearing was taking place. Remember that Justice Mohammed Danjuma of the Court of Appeal rendered a decision on the appeal that was filed by one of Fani-Kayode’s co-defendants and a former Minister of Finance, Nenadi Usman. In his appeal, Nenadi Usman challenged the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court in Lagos to hear the matter.
