Embattled Chairman of Bi-Courtney, Wale Babalakin, has cried out from his hospital bed in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, where he is undergoing treatment for an undisclosed ailment that attempts are being made on his life by forces loyal to the government and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Babalakin was to be re-arraigned on Wednesday, 12th December 2012 after failing to appear in court two weeks ago on claims that he was ill and had been hospitalised. Also on the date of his first arraignment, he sought a Federal High Court injunction to stop the EFCC from arresting and prosecuting him bon a 27-count charge of money laundering.
Babalakin, who fell out with the Federal Government recently and had his company, Bi-Courtney’s contract for the re-construction and expansion of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway revoked, expressed worries about the increase in the number of strange faces now seen around his hospital ward.
He alleged that the strange faces had invaded the hospital in a bid to forcefully arrest him with the aim of arraigning him on Wednesday, in defiance of a restraining order of the Federal High Court in Lagos.
In one of the instances, he said a man had entered the hospital ward unnoticed and had made attempt on him before help came from the hospital. According to Babalakin, the man would later identify himself as an official of the EFCC.
Babalakin said that although the management of LUTH had frustrated an earlier attempt by officials of the EFCC to arrest him on Sunday afternoon, some of the operatives still claim to have received orders to forcefully whisk him out of the hospital to face trial at the Ikeja High Court.
He said he was keeping Nigerians aware of the situation and asking them to help prevail on the EFCC to follow the law.
The intrigues concerning the Babalakin’s case with the EFCC led to the detailing of about 20 mobile policemen and officials of the EFCC to the hospital last Tuesday to effect his arrest. But despite being stopped by the hospital, they have allegedly continued to keep vigil on him.
