Mrs Patience Omoike-Mark, counsel to Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has said that a Federal High Court (FHC) sitting in Lagos on Tuesday declared that the Economic and Financial Crimes (EFCC)’s suit filed against their client and others was no longer alive.
Omoike-Mark said that Justice Daniel Osiagor struck out the charge against Chief Fani-Kayode, ex-Minister of Aviation; former Minister of State for Finance, Nenandi Usman and others following a Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal’s judgment quashing the suit.
The lawyer, who gave the clarification in a statement he signed on Thursday in Abuja, also made available to newsmen a certified true copy of the ruling delivered by Justice Osiagor to the effect.
The statement is titled: “The Victory of Chief Femi Fani-Kayode against the EFCC at the Federal High Court in Lagos.”
Omoike-Mark, who refuted the media report that Justice Osiagor ordered that all exhibits and documents tendered during the hearing of the suit be released back to EFCC, said the court only directed that documents and exhibits filed in the course of the trial be returned to parties in the case.
“We refer to case number FHC/L/251C/16, FRN vs NENADI ESTHER USMAN & 3 ORS.
“The matter, wherein we represent the 2nd defendant (Fani-Kayode), came up on the 25th of April, 2023.
“The court was informed of the judgment of the Court of Appeal quashing the charge in the Federal High Court Lagos on the issue of lack of jurisdiction.
“And after counsel applied for their documents in the matter, the court, in abiding by the decision of the court of Appeal, ordered that documents belonging to parties be released them in the suit.
“What this implied is that all parties, including Chief Fani-Kayode, should have access to their documents.
“The court struck out the suit from its own docket since it no longer has jurisdiction to hear it.
“Contrary to media reports, these are the facts and this is what happened at the Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday.
“We wish to state the following in order to clarify the situation and let the Nigerian public know the truth,” she said.
According to Omoike-Mark, it is unfortunate that the EFCC and its elements in the Nigerian media misrepresented the position of the proceedings at the Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday in respect of the now terminated criminal case that was filed and prosecuted by the EFCC over the last seven years against our client, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode.
He stressed that Justice Osiagor neither ordered that the matter should be transferred to Abuja for refiling and re-charging nor did he ordered that Fani-Kayode’s passport should be handed over to the EFCC.
“The Learned Judge simply ordered that the case be struck out and that our client’s passport should be returned to him.
“This was after an earlier judgement last Thursday by the Court of Appeal in which the same charges against our client had been quashed.
“As at today, there is no case in respect of these charges in the court against our client and after seven years of prosecution, we are not only grateful to the courts for administering justice in a fair and just manner but we are also overjoyed at the fact that what can only be described as yet another seven-year ordeal has been brought to an end.
“They prosecuted him from 2008 till 2015 on politically-motivated, bogus spurious and trumped up charges and after seven years, he was discharged and acquitted by Justice Rita Ofili Ajumogobia of the Federal High Court in Lagos.
“One year later in 2016, they went after him again and charged him on yet another set of politically-motivated and spurious charges again at the Federal High Court in Lagos and last Thursday, which was again seven years later, all those charges have been quashed by the Court of Appeal.
“It is instructive to also mention the fact that they are prosecuting him in two other courts, at the Ikeja High Court in Lagos and the Federal High Court in Abuja respectively, for again what we consider to be spurious and politically motivated charges.
“Despite their loss at the Court of Appeal last week and the decision of the learned and distinguished Court of Appeal judges to quash all the charges, if the EFCC deems it fit to go to an Abuja court after seven years of unsuccessfully prosecuting the same matter in Lagos and wasting taxpayers money to refile the case and start the matter all over again, that is their prerogative.
“In the event of them doing so, we shall of course meet them in court and resist them with as much vigour, skill and aggression as we have done over the last 14 years in their quest to jail our client who is totally innocent of any wrongdoing.
“Whatever they choose to do, as at now, the matter is completely dead. They have lost the case; the charges have been quashed and the matter has been thrown out.
“All the media manipulation, fake reports, falsehood and fabrications in the world cannot change that.
“We have applied for the certified true copies of the judgement and ruling in both courts and once we have them, we shall release them to the public.
“Meanwhile, we urge the media to be more circumspect in their reporting and not allow themselves to be used to misrepresent the position of the court,” Omoike-Mark concluded.
Meanwhile, a copy of Justice Osiagor’ ruling marked: FHC/L/251C/16 delivered on Tuesday but sighted on Thursday reads: “AFTER HEARING the learned silk for the Prosecution informing the Court that there is a Ruling of the Court of Appeal that the charge herein can be determined in this Court’s territorial jurisdiction.
“The Appeal was upheld. Consequently, he applied that the exhibits tendered be returned to the prosecution.
“The court having noted that the Court of Appeal has announced the death of this case in this jurisdiction.
“It is hereby ordered that all exhibits or documents of the parties be returned to them.”
The Court of Appeal in Lagos had, on April 20, quashed charges of misappropriation of N4.6 billion and money laundering brought against Mrs Usman, alongside Fani-Kayode; a former Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Yusuf Danjuma, and a company, Jointrust Dimensions Nigeria Ltd.
The decision followed an appeal filed by Mrs Usman against the lower court on jurisdictional grounds.
Justice Mohammed Aikawa of the FHC in Lagos had on September 25, 2017, dismissed an application by Fani-Kayode and Usman, challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the case.
Dissatisfied, the defendants challenged the ruling at the Court of Appeal Lagos, Division and urged the court to quash the charge filed against them.
But, seven years after, the Court of Appeal, in its judgement agreed with the defence counsel led by Mr. Norrison Quakers, SAN, and held that the FHC in Lagos lacked jurisdiction to adjudicate on the matter.
EFCC had preferred a 17-count charge bordering on N4.6 billion money laundering against them before Justice Mohammed Aikawa of a FHC, Lagos.
In the charge, the defendants were alleged to have committed the offences between January and March 2015 in Lagos.
The defendants had each pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted bail.
The trial had begun before Justice Aikawa and witnesses were still being led in evidence, until Mr Aikawa was transferred out of the Lagos division.
The charge was consequently re-assigned to Justice Osaigor, and they were consequently, re-arraigned on January 24, 2022.
Again, the trial had since commenced in the case and witnesses were still giving evidence before the Appeal Court quashed the charge.
