Members of the Lagos State House of Assembly on Monday expressed confidence in their Speaker, Rt. Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji and other principal officers of the Assembly. They also urged Lagosians to also support the embattled speaker.
Speaker Ikuforiji has been on trial before Justice Okechukwu Okeke of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, after he was charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for money laundering offences totalling over N500m.
Last week, the court adjourned the case indefinitely after the judge lamented that the EFCC had continued with strategies to cause the case to linger. At plenary on Monday, the members unanimously adopted a motion seeking a vote of confidence on the House leadership for its continued resilience during the trying period.
Several civil society groups had bashed the House since the commencement of trials, claiming that the lawmakers always shut activities of the House anytime the case against the speaker was to be heard. This, the House made several attempts to deny.
Moving the motion on the floor of the House under matter of urgent public importance, a member representing Agege Constituency 2, Yinka Ogundimu commended he House leadership for not derailing in carrying out its functions despite having to support the speaker whenever his case came up in court.
He said this was also against the move by the prosecution to continue to delay the case and therefore motivate unseen forces to blackmail the House. According to Ogundimu, from the pronouncement of the presiding Judge, Justice Okechukwu Okeke at the last hearing before adjourning the case indefinitely, “it is clear that there are some unseen forces behind the case, causing delay in proceedings and also resorting to blackmail to achieve a sinister motive.”
He recalled the complaint of the judge that the case had witnessed serious delays by the prosecution, saying the intentional delay by the EFCC amounted to an abuse of the judicial process and an attempt by the perceived enemies to frustrate the House and its activities. He recalled that the court tried on several occasions to accelerate the hearing of the case to no avail.
“It has been a deliberate effort to slow down activities of the House. I commend the leadership of the House for the mature way it has handled the matter, refusing to be blackmailed and slow down the activities of the House,” he said.
Expressing support for the motion, Hon. Rotimi Olowo (Somolu 1) explained that it had been a traumatic experience for the House since the trial started, having reduced the morale of the lawmakers and their outputs. He praised the Judge for his efforts to expedite the trial even though this did not materialise.
Another lawmaker, Mufutau Egberongbe advocated for a reform of the Judiciary, saying there were many lapses to be addressed, one of them being the duration of trial of cases and the technicalities employed by people to delay trials.
On his part, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa viewed the matter more as political rather than legal, saying, “The genesis of the case shows that there are interested parties who for political reasons chose to delay the case so as to pursue their political interest.”
He further warned these perceived enemies against attempting to strain the cordial relationship existing between the members and principal officers.
