The former Managing Director of the defunct
Intercontinental Bank Plc, Erastus Akingbola has asked the Lagos High
Court sitting in Ikeja to quash the charges of stealing about N47.1
billion preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC).Mr Akingbola is being prosecuted alongside the General Manager of Tropics Securities Limited, Bayo Dada for allegedly stealing money belonging to the bank.
The case of the Federal Republic of Nigeria against accused persons had been set down for trial by trial judge, Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo.
Counsel for Mr Akingbola, Wole Olanipekun however brought the courts attention to an application he described as novel and fundamental.
In the application, the counsel formulated two issues for the courts determination. First, the counsel argued that with regards to Section 211 of the 1999 constitution and Sections 249, 252 and 253 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos, the Federal Government cannot prosecute a case of stealing before a Lagos High Court under the Lagos State Criminal Code.
To do so, Mr Olanipekun argued would be to usurp the powers of the Lagos State government and result in future in a likely scenario where the Federal government starts to prosecute cases of reckless driving and environmental offences before the state high court.
Stressing on issues of federalism and citing some precedents, the lawyer argued that for the federal government and the EFCC to prosecute the offence of stealing against Mr Akingbola in the state high court, it would mean that the Attorney General of Lagos had delegated his powers via a letter of fiat, powers which he argued could not be further delegated to the private legal practitioners prosecuting the case on behalf of the EFCC.
The point was also made that no such fiat from the attorney general of Lagos had been exhibited before the court and so Mr Olanipekun urged Justice Onigbanjo to quash the charges against his client.
Counsel to the EFCC, Emmanuel Ukala however opposed the application.
He noted that the issue of the proper person to prosecute the charge had been extensively dealt with before former trial judge, Justice Abeeb Habiru whose elevation to the Court of appeal paved the way for trial to commence afresh before the present judge.
Mr Ukala also submitted that Section 211 of the constitution did not limit prosecution of cases before the state high court to the attorney general of the state.
For him, the EFCC has the power to initiate proceedings in any matter relating to financial and economic crimes such as the charges of stealing in the instant case which were contemplated by the EFCC Act.
However, the court swiftly struck out a similar application filed by the second defendant, Mr Dada for being an abuse of court processes.
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