Justice Muslim Hassan of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi has
fixed December 18, 2018 for the “proper” arraignment of the President of
the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Paul Usoro. Usoro was scheduled to be
arraigned today, Monday, December 10, 2018 by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for allegedly converting and
laundering a sum of N1.4bn belonging to the Akwa Ibom State government.
However, the arraignment was stalled due to the unavailability of the
defendant to be served the charge. At today’s sitting, the prosecution
counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, told the court that the EFCC’s investigators
could not serve the charge on the defendant because he was not
available.
“He
pleaded with them that he has a function abroad and that he will be
available on Friday, December 7, 2018. However, the defendant did not
make good his promise for the charge to be served on him,” he told the
court. Oyedepo further told the court that it was important that the
defendant be served personally, especially for the proper commencement
of these proceedings. "My Lord, since he is here now and the charge is
in the file, the court can direct the prosecutor to serve him. Then, we
can take a date for arraignment. The service copy is in the office of
the Director of Operations, I only have my own copy here”, he
said. However, the lead defence counsel, Wole Olanipekun, SAN, told the
court that "It is the duty of the prosecutor to serve the defendant. It
is wrong for the prosecutor to tell a defendant to come and pick his
charge. Olanipekun also told the court that his client did not make any
promise to honour any invitation by the prosecution to pick up his
charge. The defendant voluntarily came to court today. “The defendant is
the NBA President; so, he is always very busy with a lot of
engagements. He was just told that the matter would come up today. He
was called this morning that he should come to pick his charge and he
responded politely," he added. He, therefore, urged the court to direct
the officer of the court to serve the charge on the defendant, adding
that "We also ask that the court direct its Registrar to serve the
charge on the defendant before the next adjourned date." In a short
ruling, Justice Hassan ordered the prosecutor to serve the defendant
with the charge and adjourned to December 18, 2018 for proper
arraignment.
