ABUJA — Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court in Abuja, yesterday, slammed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for engaging in what he termed “shoddy investigations and untidy trial of cases.”
*Mr. Stephen Oronsaye
Justice Kolawole said he was disappointed that the anti-graft agency chose to amend the charge it preferred against the former Head of Service of the Federation, Mr. Stephen Oronsaye, barely 24 hours to the commencement of full-blown trial on the matter.
“This is a very untidy manner of handling criminal prosecution and goes to further buttress the observation that the Chief Justice of Nigeria made recently to the effect that criminal trials in this court are delayed by the fact that the prosecuting agencies always resort to arresting accused persons first before investigation, rather than properly investigating cases before rushing to court.
“The question any reasonable person will ask is whether while the allegation in the former charge was being investigated, issues that formed the crux of this new charge were not there?
“Indeed I am deeply concerned that the state only realised 24 hours to hearing, that it needed to bring an amended charge.”
The court had originally fixed yesterday for the EFCC to open its case against Orosanye who was hitherto answering to a 24-count criminal charge alongside his alleged accomplice, Mr. Osarenkhoe Afe.
Meantime, at the resumed sitting on the matter yesterday, EFCC lawyer, Mr. Adebisi Adeniyi, notified the court of the intention of the commission to file fresh charges against the accused persons.
Adebisi told the court that the agency has amended the charge from 24 counts to 35, saying additional 11 fresh allegations were added to the original charge against the accused persons.
Besides, EFCC, through its lawyer, told the court that it has also increased the number of accused persons in the matter from three to six.It said the new accused persons comprised of some corporate entities that the former HoS and his accomplice allegedly used to divert public funds.
The names of the indicted firms were given as- Cluster Logistics Limited, Kangolo Dynamic Cleaning Limited and Drew Investment & Construction Company Limited.
Even though Orosanye, through his lawyer, Mr. Kola Okeaya-Inneh, SAN, challenged the propriety of the fresh charges which he contended was filed without leave of the court, Justice Kolawole overruled him yesterday.
The trial Judge held that EFCC could amend the charge without firstly securing the leave of the court.
The Judge however maintained that the commission ought to have taken time to conclude its investigations and perfect its proof of evidence before rushing the matter to court.
Meanwhile, shortly before he fixed November 25 to take fresh plea of the accused persons, Justice Kolawole, gave the EFCC seven days to release Orosanye’s travelling documents in line with an earlier order of the court.
The court had in an order it made on the day it granted Orosanye bail on self recognition, ordered the EFCC to release the international passport he submitted when he was granted administrative bail by the agency.
Threatening to okay contempt proceeding against the anti-graft agency should it fail to release the documents within one week, Justice Kolawole said: “It is trite for statutory agencies to realise that they cannot continue to play pranks in the name of fighting corruption.
“Even though we must all support the fight against corruption, it will also amount to corruption of the process of the law when extant orders of a competent court are expressly disobeyed by prosecuting agencies”.
It will be recalled that Justice Kolawole had shortly after Oronsaye was docked on July 13, allowed him to go home of the strength of an undertaking that was signed by his team of 20 lawyers led by a former Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Kanu Agabi, SAN.
The court however directed EFCC to transfer his diplomatic and international passports to the Deputy Chief Registrar of the High Court.
The 2nd accused person, Afe, was however granted bail in the sum of N50million with two sureties in like sum.
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