N600m Fraud: Court To Decide Former Speaker’s Fate On Jan. 15

-Ikuforiji had in 2014 been set free of the charges on the grounds that the EFCC failed to establish a prima facie case against the speaker

Former Speaker to know his fate on Jan.15

The Supreme Court has reserved till January 15, 2018, the  judgment of the case of a former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, charged with an alleged fraud of N600m.

The court will make pronouncement on whether or not Ikuforiji should be tried afresh as directed by the Court of Appeal.

Previously, Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court in Lagos, had set the former speaker free of the fraud charges.

In a ruling in September 2014, Justice Buba ruled that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission failed to establish a prima facie case against Ikuforiji and hence dismissed the 56 counts levelled against him.

Unhappy with the judgement, the EFCC, appealed to the Court of Appeal, which, in November 2016, overturned Justice Buba’s verdict and pronounced that Ikuforiji should be tried afresh before another judge.

But Ikuforiji rejected the appellate court’s decision and went before the Supreme Court in 2016.

The Supreme Court has now fixed judgment in the case for January 15.