The scheduled re-arraignment of former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, his two sons and others on N1.35 billion money laundering charges on Wednesday was stalled after the prosecution sought more time over a pending request to reassign the case.
The matter, which came up before Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, was expected to see Lamido and his co-defendants take a fresh plea following a Supreme Court order for their retrial on the alleged N1.35 billion fraud. However, proceedings were cut short when the prosecution counsel, Chile Okoroma, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, informed the court that he was still awaiting a response to a letter sent to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, seeking reassignment of the case to the former trial judge, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu.
Okoroma urged the court to grant an adjournment to enable the prosecution receive and act on the Chief Judge’s decision regarding the reassignment request. Justice Lifu, who noted that the administrative decision lay squarely with the Chief Judge, adjourned the matter until 30 April for the prosecution to secure a response and for the defendants to return for possible re-arraignment.
During the brief session, the judge also cautioned that even if the Chief Judge approved bringing Justice Ojukwu, now sitting in the Calabar division, back to handle the matter, she would still require time to organise her docket before fixing dates for further hearing. The case, which dates back to 2015 and involves allegations that Lamido, his sons and associated companies laundered state funds to the tune of N1.35 billion, will now remain in limbo until the court’s administrative processes are concluded.
