Alleged N450m fraud: Court fixes June 28 to hear Belgore’s applications

Hearing, of two applications brought by a former gubernatorial aspirant in Kwara State, Mr. Dele Belgore, SAN, has been fixed by a Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos.

Justice Rilwan Aikawa, on Monday fixed June 28, 2018 to take Belgore’s two applications seeking for the charges to be quashed, and permission to attend his daughter’s graduation in the UK.

Mr. Belgore and Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, a former Minister of National Planning are both standing trial over an alleged fraud of N450 million.

In an application by his lawyer, Mr. Ebun Shofunde (SAN), yesterday, Belgore urged the court to order the release of his passport to enable him attend the graduation ceremony fixed for July 4, 2018.

His daughter, he said, will be graduating as a medical doctor from the University of London, UK.

According to him, he wishes to use the opportunity to visit his doctor in the UK for a medical check-up in the last week of August “once the doctors resume from their annual vacation.”

The prosecuting counsel for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, however opposed Belgore’s application for the release of his passport.

Oyedepo contended that since Belgore had an earlier application urging the court to quash the charges against him because of an alleged irregularity, he had no right to seek favour from the court until his application is decided.

“Can a party challenging the validity of proceedings be asking for favour from the same court?” the prosecutor queried.

Meanwhile, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, has hired Mr. Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) as his new lawyer.

Oyetibo’s entrance into the defence team followed the withdrawal of Mr. Olatunji Ayanlaja (SAN), who was Sulaiman’s original counsel.

At the proceedings yesterday, a lawyer from Oyetibo’s law firm, Mr. Olaniran Obele, appeared for Sulaiman, while a female lawyer from Ayanlaja’s chambers, who identified herself only as Onakoya, told the court of her principal’s application seeking to withdraw his services from the ex-minister.

As the prosecutor, Oyedepo, argued that the application had been overtaken by events since another counsel had appeared for Suleiman, Justice Aikawa eventually struck it out, after Onakoya had asked for the withdrawal of same.

The EFCC is prosecuting Belgore and Sulaiman for allegedly receiving a sum of N450m from a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, in the build-up to the 2015 general elections.

The anti-graft agency claimed that they ought to have “reasonably known” that the N450m was part of proceeds of unlawful activities, adding that they handled the money without going through any financial institution, contrary to the provisions of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.

But the defendants pleaded not guilty.