The Attorney-General of the Federation,
Mr Mohammed Adoke, has taken over the
prosecution of a businessman and Cross Country
boss, Bube Okorodudu, standing trial on a
N82.8 million theft charge.
Mr D.E. Kaswe, a lawyer from the AGF’s office,
made this known on Wednesday at the
resumption of Okorodudu’s case before Justice
Lateef Lawal-Akapo of an Ikeja High Court.
Okorodudu and his transport firm — Cross
Country Ltd – are being prosecuted by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC).
The defendants were charged alongside another
company, Car Link Ltd, on an eight- count
bordering on conspiracy, stealing, forgery and
uttering.
The EFCC had alleged that they stole the money
through the fraudulent sale of 17 units of
Volkswagen transporter buses belonging to AG
Moeller Ltd and Mr Adeloye Olukemi.
At the resumed hearing of the case on
Wednesday, Kaswe told the court that the
Attorney-General took over the case from the
EFCC on Sept. 8 while the court was on
vacation.
He said: “Having taken over the matter, we have
written to the EFCC which hitherto was handling
it to give us the original case file.
“The AGF took over the matter because there is
another case at the Federal High Court in Lagos
and we want to examine the files and reach our
own conclusions.”
Kaswe, therefore, asked the court for an
adjournment to enable the AGF’s office to get
the file from the EFCC.
Also addressing the court, the defence counsel,
Mr Taiwo Taiwo, said Okorodudu had voluntarily
turned himself into the police as directed by the
court on July 1.
“The first defendant (Okorodudu) was in their
custody and came to court on July 14 but the
court could not sit due to the strike by judiciary
workers.
“He was thereafter granted administrative bail by
the police and the reason he is not here today is
because I was not aware that the matter would
be coming up today,” Taiwo added.
Reacting to the development, Lawal-Akapo,
noted that the directive by the National Judicial
Council was that judges should give priority to
high profile criminal cases.
” I am not in any way impressed with the
explanation given by the prosecution counsel
that the AGF office is still trying to take over
the original case file from the EFCC since Sept.
8.
“Counsel from both sides should assist the
court in dealing speedily with this matter.”
The judge also held that the bench warrant
issued against Okorodudu on July 1 was still in
force.
Lawal-Akapo ordered the police to arrest and
produce him in court at the next date of
adjournment fixed for Dec. 2. (NAN)
source: www.vanguardngr.com/2014/10/n82-8m-theft-agf-takes-prosecution-cross-country-boss/