*Court Shifts Ruling To July 17, As Ex-Gov’s Lawyer Applies To Withdraw From Case

THE corruption case involving a former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, took another twist on Thursday, June 27, over his continued refusal to appear in court for arraignment and to take his plea, despite assurance by his Counsel at the last hearing to ensure his presence at the resumed hearing.

Bello, who is facing a 19-count charge for alleged laundering money, breaching of trust and misappropriating approximately N80.2billion public funds, has consistently shunned appearance at the Federal High Court, Abuja.

  But on Thursday, rather than appear before the court, the former governor, through his lawyer, applied to be tried in Kogi State, where the offence was allegedly committed.

In the letter he wrote through his team of lawyers, led by Mr. Abdulwahab Mohammed (SAN) to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, Bello said it would be legally wrong for the EFCC to subject him to a trial in Abuja when the offence he allegedly committed were in Kogi State, insisting that only the Lokoja Division of the High Court, has the territorial jurisdiction to entertain the allegations against him.

He stated: “All the funds which the complainant alleged to have been laundered by the defendant are monies of the Government of Kogi State, whose capital is in Lokoja.

“All the bank accounts from which the said monies are stated to be laundered from as shown in the proof of evidence are domiciled with the branches of the respective banks in Lokoja, Kogi State.

“Thus, the law is settled that generally, the Federal High Court’s jurisdiction is one all over the federation, the court is divided into judicial divisions and where a crime is committed in any of the divisions, criminal proceedings thereof must be initiated and prosecuted in that very judicial division of the Federal High Court where the act or omission or the elements of the offence were allegedly committed.

“It is pertinent to note that the defendant was governor of Kogi State, the charges and the proof of evidence indicate criminal breach of trust, criminal misappropriation and money laundering, in respect of the statutory funds of Kogi State.

“These are the alleged predicate offences and all their elements took place in Kogi State, within the territorial jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, Lokoja Judicial Division.

“We humbly urge my lord to transfer the subject charge to the Lokoja Division of the Federal High Court, which is the Division with the territorial jurisdiction to try the case.”

One of his lawyers, Mr. Adeola Adedipe (SAN), who earlier announced appearance for him, drew the attention Justice Emeka Nwite to the letter his client wrote to Justice Tsoho on June 13, saying the CJ had already asked the EFCC’s lawyer to respond to the request.

He stated: “My lord, as of this morning, I am not aware whether there has been a response by the prosecution team in compliance to the directive of the CJ.

“We are also not in receipt of any decision that has been made on this request by the CJ.

“I am also aware that this administrative directive of the CJ has been formally communicated to this court. We have filed an affidavit of fact, wherein we attached two documents referencing the details that I have just highlighted.

“My duty is first to the court. As of the moment, I am not urging anything from the court, but just to present the facts as they are.”

Then, the firework started, as in his response, the EFCC Counsel, Mr. Kemi Pinhero (SAN), urged the court to cite the two senior lawyers- Mohammed and Adedipe- that have appeared for the defendant in the matter for contempt, having on three different occasions, given an undertaking before the court to produce their client (Bello) for his trial.

He said their failure to make the defendant available before the court in line with the undertaking amounted to a breach of the rules of professional conduct, citing Order 31(3) of the Rules of Professional Conduct, which states that a lawyer who fails to fulfill a court undertaking is not only in contempt but also guilty of misconduct.

“My lord, our application is that since one of the lawyers is present in court, he should be moved to the dock and dealt with him summarily, that is what the law says.

     “We urge the court to exercise disciplinary jurisdiction over the lawyers so as to preserve the integrity of the judiciary.

 “If a Chief Justice of Nigeria can be docked before an inferior tribunal, who then is a SAN or a former governor, in terms of status?

    “Even a former President of the United States of America was docked. These senior lawyers have been helping the defendant to treat this court with scorn.

     “For five consecutive sittings, the defendant refused to make himself available for his trial and his lawyers have continued to use all forms of chicanery to frustrate his arraignment.

“If this sort of conduct is not punished, then we will be sliding to a situation that will be worse than the Animal Farm.

“The world is watching. Punishing these senior lawyers will send a very clear message,” he stated.

At that point, Adedipe applied to withdraw his appearance for the defendant, telling the court that he was not Bello’s lead counsel, while denying that he made any undertaking to secure Bello’s presence for the trial.

He said: “My lord, the narration by the prosecution Counsel is very untrue and it is accentuated by malice. I am not the Lead Counsel in this matter.

“What the learned prosecution Counsel has tried to do was to pitch my person against this court.”

He argued that it was EFCC that treated the court with disrespect by failing to execute the warrant it obtained for the arrest of the defendant.

Adedipe recalled that his team had earlier notified the court that it was not aware of the whereabouts of their client and had enlisted the assistance of “some elders” to persuade the former governor to appear before the court.

He said in the light of the development regarding the case, he had no option than to activate the provision of Section 349(8) of ACJA, 2015, by withdrawing his appearance for the defendant.

But Pinhero insisted that it was late for Adedipe to withdraw from the case, adding: “My lord, he should be used to set an example that this is not a lottery game. His request to withdraw is only an afterthought and it should not be countenanced by this court.

“I urge your lordship to invite him to the dock immediately.”

After listening to the heated arguments, Justice Nwite adjourned the matter until July 17 for the arraignment of the former governor and ruling on EFCC’s request to cite the two senior lawyers for contempt.