A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, presided over by Justice Charles Archibong, has dismissed the case brought against a former Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank Plc, Erastus Akingbola, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for lack of diligent prosecution on the part of the commission.
Archibong declared Akingbola, accused of fraud to the tune of N47.1 billion, free to go home because of accusations that the EFCC did not show enough dedication to the prosecutuion of the case.
The judge and the EFCC had, in the course of the case, disagreed over the handling of the case by Archibong and the manner of prosecution of the case by the commission.
The EFCC had reported the judge to the National Judicial Commission.
The counsel of the EFCC, Godwin Obla, SAN, owing to this, had asked the judge to disqualify himself from hearing the case.
But Archibong did not withdraw.
On Monday, he dismissed the case.
The situation was similar to that of the prosecution of those accused of involvement in the Halliburton bribery scandal.
Justice Abubakar Umar of an Abuja High Court struck out the case on March 26, 2012 for want of diligent prosecution by the EFCC.
Umar declared the accused in the case free.
The three persons declared free were a former Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Head of Service, Alhaji Ibrahim Aliyu; a retired Air Vice marshal, Abdullahi Bello; and Mohammed Bakari of the Urban Shelter Limited.
The EFCC had taken the three accused persons before Justice Umar on a nine-count charge.
Umar struck out the suit after the counsel of the EFCC, Ms Kauna Pindam, prayed the court to grant the commission another adjournment to enable it to arraign the accused persons.
Umar refused to grant the adjournment.
He reminded the EFCC of an order he gave on January 23, 2012 that the commission should be ready to arraign the three suspects named in the $180 million Halliburton bribery scandal unfailingly that day or risk the case being quashed.