A High Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos on Friday, threw out an application that was filed by a former Managing Director of the defunct Intercontinental Bank, Erastus Akingbola, as the presiding judge, Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo, ruled that the offences listed in the proof of evidence included stealing, obtaining money by false pretences and receiving stolen property and as such the court has the jurisdiction to hear the case.
Akingbola had asked the court to quash the N47.1 billion theft charge preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and through his counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun and Prof. Taiwo Osipitan, he had challenged the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the 22-count charge.
Olanipekun had argued that the subject matter of the alleged offences related to banking operations and capital market issues and that as a result, only the Federal High Court had the exclusive jurisdiction to entertain it under Section 251 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Olanipekun cited a judgment delivered by the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, on 21st November 2013 in a matter filed by a former Managing Director of Finbank, Okey Nwosu, against the EFCC in which the Appeal Court struck out the theft charge preferred against Nwosu on the grounds that the Lagos High Court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
Olanipekun argued that Nwosu and Akingbola’s cases are similar, adding that the lkeja High Court was bound to follow the decision of the appellate court. He further argued that the charge was also an abuse of court process because a similar charge involving Akingbola and the EFCC was currently pending before the Federal High Court, Lagos.
In his opposition to the application, the EFCC counsel, Chief Godwin Obla, urged the court to throw out the application as according to him, the court had jurisdiction over the matter under Section 14 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act.
He said the Akingbola was charged with stealing which clearly distinguishes it from Nwosu’s case.
Lawal-Akapo, in his ruling, said all the counts listed above have nothing to do with banking transactions and capital market thus making it different from that of Nwosu.
The judge held that the court could not determine if the charge was an abuse of court process as the defence had failed to furnish it with the information before the Federal High Court.
He said the Lagos State High Court has jurisdiction to try offences charged under the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act adding that the offences, as charged, are within the purview and competence of the state high court.
“I find no merit in the applications and they are hereby dismissed,” he said.
Before adjourning the matter till 23rd June for re-arraignment of the defendants, the judge dismissed a similar application filed by Akingbola’s co-defendant and General Manager of Tropics Securities Ltd, Bayo Dada, for lacking in merit.
