₦airaland Forum

Former Kogi State Governor, Abubakar Audu, on Friday, appeared before a Lokoja High Court for the continuation of the 81-count charge of corruption levelled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Audu, who arrived at the court at about 8 a.m amid tight security and in company of some of his supporters, is being accused of embezzling public funds amounting to N5 billion by the EFCC.

When the case came up for hearing, Abdullahi Haruna, counsel to Audu, applied for a stay of proceeding, claiming that he was not fully prepared for the case.

Haruna was the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in the administration of Audu between 1999 and 2003.

The anti-graft body had in November 2006 slammed the charges against the former governor.

However, counsel to the EFCC, Rotimi Jacob, urged the court not to grant the request, wondering why the accused and his counsel had continued to delay the hearing for five years.

He further stated that the case had been made to suffer a long delay due to the tactics employed by the defence.

The presiding judge, Justice Saidu Tanko Husseini, while granting the request of the defence, adjourned further hearing in the matter till July 14.

He also reminded the defence counsel of an earlier order of the court, asking him to produce the medical certificate, justifying his client’s absence in court in April.

The mien of the leadership of the National Assembly might have changed with the election of a new speaker in the House, but their core values remain largely untouched

The House of Representatives, on Thursday, absolved its former Speaker, Patricia Etteh, of involvement in an alleged N628 million renovation contract scam.

This was sequel to a motion moved by Ita Enag (PDP, Akwa Ibom), the Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, which was unanimously adopted when put to vote by Speaker Dimeji Bankole.

“Let it be put on record that no record or proceedings of this House at any time indicted Honourable Patricia Etteh,’’ he said.