Ikuforiji: Judge direct parties to adopt final addresses November 15

November 15, 2023, was on Tuesday fixed for the adoption of the final written addresses filed by lawyers in the trial of the former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, over alleged fraud to the tune of N338.8m.

Justice Muhammad Liman of a Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, gave the date after the tendering of the Certified True Copy (CTC) of court proceedings of 2014, held before Justice Ibrahim Buba.

When the matter came up for hearing, the defendant tendered the CTC of the 2014 proceedings through Adewale Olatunji, the former Chief Accountant in the Lagos State House of Assembly who was subpoenaed by the court.

It is recalled that on May 4, 2023, the former Speaker hinted to the court that his trial was politically motivated.

Ikuforiji, who stated this while defending himself in the no-case submission filed before Justice Liman, refuted the money laundering allegation preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), with an addition that the initial allegations made against him by the EFCC were fraud and misappropriation of funds, which the Commission later turned to money laundering.

The former Speaker said: It is a pity that I am standing trial today based on a faceless petition that has no name or address of the writer, who alleged that I committed fraud or misappropriated the sum of over N7bn".

As a three-term Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Ikuforiji said if he indeed committed such an infraction, his case would not first get to the EFCC for trial, as members of the House would have dealt with him by first impeaching him and hand him over to the law enforcement agency.

While stating that as the Head of the Lagos State House of Assembly, his role in any financial issue is to give final approval on any memo put before him, after the Office of the Clerk and that of the Finance Department have done their beats, he said, I don't handle cash or disbursement of funds, it is the duty of the Office of the Clerk and the Finance Department to do that.

The anti-graft agency had arraigned Ikuforiji alongside his former Personal Assistant (PA), Oyebode Atoyebi, on 54 counts bordering on the offence.

But the duo pleaded not guilty, and they were allowed to continue on an earlier bail granted to them in 2012 when they were first arraigned.

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