The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, has taken over the prosecution of a businessman and Cross Country boss, Bube Okorodudu, standing trial on a N82.8 million theft charge.
D.E. Kaswe, a lawyer from the AGF’s office, made this known on Wednesday at the resumption of Okorodudu’s case before Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo of an Ikeja High Court in Lagos State.
Okorodudu and his transport firm, Cross Country Limited, are being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The defendants were charged alongside another company, Car Link Limited, on an eight- count bordering on conspiracy, stealing, forgery and uttering.
The EFCC had alleged that they stole the money through the fraudulent sale of 17 units of Volkswagen transporter buses belonging to AG Moeller Limited and Adeloye Olukemi.
At the resumed hearing of the case on Wednesday, Kaswe told the court that the Attorney-General took over the case from the EFCC on September 8, while the court was on vacation.
He said: “Having taken over the matter, we have written to the EFCC, which hitherto was handling it to give us the original case file.
“The AGF took over the matter because there is another case at the Federal High Court in Lagos and we want to examine the files and reach our own conclusions.”
Kaswe, therefore, asked the court for an adjournment to enable the AGF’s office to get the file from the EFCC.
Also addressing the court, the defence counsel, Taiwo Taiwo, said Okorodudu had voluntarily turned himself into the police as directed by the court on July 1.
Taiwo said: “The first defendant (Okorodudu) was in their custody and came to court on July 14 but the court could not sit due to the strike by judiciary workers.
“He was thereafter granted administrative bail by the police and the reason he is not here today is because I was not aware that the matter would be coming up today.”
Reacting to the development, Lawal-Akapo noted that the directive by the National Judicial Council was that judges should give priority to high profile criminal cases.
He said: “I am not in any way impressed with the explanation given by the prosecution counsel that the AGF office is still trying to take over the original case file from the EFCC since September 8.
“Counsel from both sides should assist the court in dealing speedily with this matter.”
The judge also held that the bench warrant issued against Okorodudu on July 1was still in force.
Lawal-Akapo ordered the police to arrest and produce him in court at the next date of adjournment fixed for December 2.
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