Supreme Court orders re-trial of ex-Lagos Speaker for alleged corruption

A five-man panel of the Supreme Court has ordered the re-trial of a former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, who was charged with an alleged N338 million fraud.

The court gave the ruling on Friday. It was to rule on whether Mr. Ikuforiji should be tried anew as ordered by the Court of Appeal.

The panel headed by Justice Mary Peter-Odili unanimously ruled that the case be re-assigned to another judge of the Federal High Court instead of Justice Ibrahim Buba, who had earlier absolved Mr. Ikuforiji of the charge.

Justice Buba had, in a ruling in September 2014, held that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, failed to establish a case against Mr. Ikuforiji and his former aide, Oyebode Atoyebi.

The judge had also dismissed the 56-count charge raised by the EFCC against Mr. Ikuforiji.

Dissatisfied with Justice Buba’s ruling, the EFCC appealed to the Court of Appeal, which upturned the ruling.

The appeal court also ordered both Mr. Ikuforiji and Mr. Atoyebi to be tried by another judge.

However, in 2016, the accused persons approached the Supreme Court, where they filed separate appeals against the decision of the Court of Appeal.