On Thursday, January 23rd, 2020, the former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, and six other co-defendants charged with 42 counts in connection with the controversial 1.09 billion US Dollars’ settlement agreement on Malabu Oil Block, pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Adoke’s arraignment was stalled on Wednesday, at the FCT High Court in Gwagwalada over confusion from the prosecuting agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Then, the EFCC’s counsel, Bala Sanga, told the court that he was not aware why he came to court.

My Lord, we have not served the charge on the first, second and third defendant, we have only served the fifth, sixth and seventh defendants.

I’m at a loss as to why we are here(in court,

Sanga said.

Furthermore, the prosecutor told the court that the second defendant, Aliyu Abubakar, was at large, thereby forcing the commission to set up a 24-hour manhunt for him.

He added that it was the intention of the commission to arraign all the seven (7) defendants on January 24th, 2020, after effecting service on all of them.

I am shocked as to why it came up today but subject to the convenience of the court, i ask for a short adjournment to enable us serve them.

Adoke’s counsel, Mr Paul Erokoro, (SAN) responded with a confirmation that the former Attorney-General was yet to be served.

Erokoro, however, told the court that they were willing to waive service and proceed with the matter.

It is true that the charge has not been handed to us, but we consider ourselves served and so we waive service and are ready to go on with the arraignment.

Moreover, the legal counsel said that service was not necessary, by virtue of Section 136 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, (ACJA).

For his part, Mr Wole Olanipekun, (SAN), counsel to the second defendant, was insistent that his client had already been served.

Olanipekun also contradicted the prosecutor’s argument by saying that his client was not on the run and that in fact, his client was represented in court.

Mr Mahmud Magaji, (SAN), counsel to the third defendant, Rasky Gbinigie, wondered why the EFCC failed to serve the charge on his client who had been in their custody for days.

The counsel representing the fourth defendant was not in court. However, a representative of the fourth defendant, Nigeria Agip Exploration Ltd, told the court that his client had yet to be served.

However, the trial judge, Justice Abubakar Kutigi, insisted that the law provided for every defendant to be duly served before plea would be taken by the court.

He instructed the prosecutor to serve the charge on all the alleged parties, and also instructed that all bail applications be served on all parties.

The judge adjourned the matter for arraignment until January 23rd, 2020.

Recall that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had filed criminal charges against the former Attorney-General, Adoke, over his alleged indictment in the Oil Propective Licence (OPL) 245.

Adoke was on self-imposed exile for four years when the charges were filed against him by the Federal Government.

The EFCC accused him of fraudulently allocating OPL 245.

Adoke was arrested on December 19th, 2019 by the anti-graft agency on his arrival to Nigeria and has been in its custody since then.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.