The trial of embattled billionaire businessman, Seun Ogunbambo, over an alleged N430 million fraud against Stanbic IBTC bank that was scheduled to open at an Ikeja High Court, Lagos suffered a dramatic setback after the defendant filed an application before the court challenging the court’s jurisdiction to hear the matter.
The trial that opened Thursday came to an abrupt end after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), through its counsel, Francis Usani, said it was not ready to file a response to the application since the court had adjourned in preparation for a definite trial.
Trial judge, Olabisi Akinlade, while expressing anger at the EFCC for refusing to respond to the application contesting the court’s jurisdiction as filed by Mr. Ogunbambo, then decided to put off the trial on the substantive case until the issue of the court’s jurisdiction has been resolved. “We can’t go further when there is an application that borders on jurisdiction,” she said, before adjourning the case to March 27 to hear the preliminary objections.
Counsel to Ogunbambo, Mr. Adebayo Adenipekun, had accused the EFCC of lying about how and when it got the application challenging the court’s jurisdiction; Adenipekun said the misrepresentation of facts by the anti-graft agency before the court was not fair.
He recalled that the application was served on the 7th of March, but the EFCC counsel said he received the application on the 11th of March by 4.35p.m. He however argued that the trial should commence since that was the reason they were in court.
The case had several times been adjourned for the defendant, who also has a case of subsidy scam to settle with the contending party out of court. The judge had fixed a date for trial when the negotiations between the parties did not sail through.
