Ekweremadu Wins As Court Strikes Out Asset Declaration Case Against Him

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Monday, struck out the charges of non-declaration of assets instituted against a former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.

It will be recalled that the charges were brought against Ekweremadu in 2018 by the now-defunct Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property under the leadership of Mr. Okoi Obono-Obla.

The case was however taken over by the office of the Attorney General of the Federation in 2019 after the panel was dissolved.

On Monday, Justice Binta Nyako struck out the case marked FHC/ABJ/CR/62/2018 when the case came up before her.

Before her ruling, the prosecuting counsel from the AGF office, Mr. Pius Akutah, told the court that the former lawyer handling the case for the panel had disappeared with the case file.

He then appealed to the judge to order the former counsel to release the file to the office of the AGF but the request was declined by the judge.

Ekweremadu’s lawyer, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), also urged the judge to strike out the case.

In her response, Justice Nyako said, “You are attorney general (referring to the lawyer as representing the AGF), you should know what to do.

“You should not be waiting for me to make an order against an individual.”

“So, as it is today, you don’t know the case against the defendant since you don’t have the file. I am going to strike out the case, when you are ready you can come back.

“The case is hereby struck out for want of diligent prosecution. The prosecution is allowed to come back whenever they are ready to proceed with the case.”