N4.9bn fraud: EFCC opposes transfer of Fani-Kayode’s case to Abuja

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has begged Justice Muslim Hassan of the Federal High Court in Lagos to trash the application filled before him by a former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, seeking the transfer of his criminal trial from Lagos to Abuja.

Fani-Kayode is currently standing trail for an alleged fraud of N4.9bn.

Also accused alongisde Fani-Kayode on 17 counts are a former Minister of State for Finance, Nenadi Usman, an ex-Chairman of Kagarko Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Mr. Yusuf Danjuma, and a company, Jointrust Dimentions Nigeria Limited.

Fani-Kayode had, in an application filed through his lawyer, Mr. Norrison Quakers (SAN), pleaded for the transfer of his trial to Abuja for convenience and on the grounds that the cause of action leading to the charges took place in Abuja.

The PDP chieftain recalled that it was Justice Hassan, then a senior counsel for the EFCC, who drafted, filed and signed a charge marked, FHC/L/523c/2008, leading to his trial for alleged N100m money laundering before Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia.

However, EFCC, in a counter-affidavit, urged Justice Hassan not to entertain the request to transfer the case to Abuja.

It added that the witnesses it intended to call in the case live in Lagos.

“The various accounts used as an intermediate step in the scheme of the alleged fraud/offences are domiciled in Zenith Bank Plc which has its operational headquarters in Lagos,” counsel for the EFCC, Idris Mohammed, said in the counter-affidavit.

The EFCC also claimed that it was too late for the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to transfer the case to Abuja.

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