READ: Alleged N4.6bn fraud: Fani-Kayode challenges court jurisdiction

Former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has asked the Federal High Court in Lagos to decline territorial juris­diction in his trial for money laun­dering.

He is prayed Justice Rilwan Aika­wa to transfer the case to the court’s Abuja division.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) re-arraigned Fani-Kayode and Senator Nenadi Usman for alleged N4.6 bil­lion fraud.

They pleaded not guilty to the 17-count charge of money launder­ing.

The defendants were first ar­raigned last June 28, before Justice Muslim Hassan, but he recused him­self on March 16, after Fani-Kayode accused him of likely bias.

The judge transferred the case file to the Chief Judge, Justice Ibrahim Auta, for re-assignment to another judge.

Arguing the application before Justice Aikawa, Fani-Kayode’s law­yer, Mr Norrison Quakers (SAN), said the court lacked the jurisdiction to try the case in Lagos.

He said that the facts of the case show that all the transactions which the former minister carried out as Director of Media and Publicity of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, for which he was charged, took place in Abuja.

Besides, he said the defendant stays in Abuja and has another trial currently going in Abuja in another case.

But, EFCC’s counsel Rotimi Oyedepo urged the court to refuse the application.

According to him, the instru­ments of transactions, including cheques and receipts, “were recov­ered in Lagos.”

“The financial institutions used in the transactions have their head of­fices in Lagos,” Oyedepo added.

He said 13 of the prosecution’s 17 witnesses live in Lagos, adding that the application was a ploy to delay the case.

Oyedepo said Fani-Kayode’s law­yers also raised the issue of transfer before Justice Hassan, yet the Chief Judge, re-assigned the case to an­other judge in Lagos rather than one in Abuja.

“The consequence of the alleged offence of money laundering is not limited to Abuja, but the entire fed­eration. All the instruments of the transaction were brought by Zenith Bank in Lagos,” he said.

Before the application for transfer was moved, Oyedepo had sought to tender receipts showing that Fani-Kayode made a cash payment of N30 million to the first prosecution witness, a media consultant, Adewu­mi Idowu.

The EFCC sought to tender the two receipts acknowledging cash payments of N24 million and N6 million, but Quakers objected on the basis that they were not the originals.

Justice Aikawa adjourned till September 26 and 27 for ruling and continuation of trial.