Fresh arraignment of former Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, and his two sons, at the Federal High Court, Abuja, on allegation of N1.3 billion corruption charges filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, suffered another setback on Wednesday.
Lamido and his two sons, Aminu Lamido and Mustapha Lamido, accused of allegedly committing the fraud together through fictitious contract awards, were to be arraigned on April 1 but could not hold despite the presence of all the accused persons in court.
The arraignment had on March 13 suffered same fate due to the absence of all the defendants in court occasioned by late service of trial notice on them.
However, at Wednesday's proceedings after Lamido and his sons have been put in the dock for their plea to be taken, EFCC counsel, Chile Okoroma, drew the attention of Justice Peter Lifu to the judgment of the Supreme Court that Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, who started the trial in 2015 and having gone halfway before her transfer to Calabar division of the Court, should try the case to conclusion.
Okoroma said that EFCC had written to the Chief Judge of the Court, Justice John Tsoho, for a fiat to bring Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu back from Calabar to Abuja to resume the trial as ordered by the Supreme Court.
After listening to the argument, Justice Peter Lifu fixed April 30 to await the reaction of the Chief Judge to the EFCC request.
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