DUST is still being raised over how Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo prosecuted the former Chairman of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Chief Olabode George and five others without a fiat.

Chief George was tried for contracts splitting and inflation at the Lagos High Court which sentenced him to two years imprisonment in 2009.

Counsel to Chief George, Michael Lana, had written to the Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, requesting for true copies of the fiats issued to Keyamo to prosecute the case if there was any “as there was none in the court records.”

Lana, in his letter to the AGF, stated that his “request was based on the discovery that no fiat is in the record of proceedings and none was tendered in the Court of Appeal during the hearing of the bail application.”

The Chief State counsel, Ministry of Justice, Mary Bamitale Banjekusi, in a memo DPP/ADV!065/10, noted that the George cases were not on records in the DPP department.

She stated Chief George and five others were prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC).

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will this morning commence hearing on the appeal filed by Chief Olabode George against the judgment of the appellate court that upheld the judgment of the Lagos State High Court which sentenced him to two years imprisonment for contracts splitting and inflation in 2009.

The former Deputy National Chairman (South West) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had filed an appeal to the apex court asking for a review of the said judgment and also upturn the judgment of the trial court which sentenced him to two years imprisonment.

George, in one of the grounds of appeal, contended that the appellate court erred in law when it failed to upturn the jail term passed on him by the trial court.

He also argued that the prosecution counsel, Mr Festus Keyamo, did not get a fiat to prosecute him, adding that the trial court erred in law when it convicted him for not obeying administrative directive, which had been in existence before he came on board of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) as chairman.

http://tribune.com.ng/news2013/index.php/en/component/k2/item/6785-keyamo-prosecuted-bode-george-without-fiat

If all else fails, then resort to 'technicalities'!