The Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Ayotunde Phillips, has turned down the request by an oil marketer, Abdullahi Alao, to reassign the N1.1bn fuel subsidy fraud charges preferred against him and four others to another judge.
Philips has therefore directed Justice Lateefat Okunnu to continue presiding over the trial. Alao is a son of an Ibadan-based businessman, Alhaji Abdulazeez Arisekola-Alao.
He is facing the trial before Okunnu at a Lagos High Court in Ikeja alongside two other oil marketers, Olarenwaju Olalusi and Opeyemi Ajuyah, and their companies – Majope Investment Ltd. and Axenergy Ltd.
Alao, who is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, had on October 23, 2013 petitioned the state Chief Judge, asking her to transfer the matter to another judge.
He had in the petition accused Okunnu of bias against him, claiming that that he would not get justice if the judge was allowed to continue presiding over the trial.
At the proceedings on Tuesday, Okunnu told both the EFCC and the defendants’ counsel that the Chief Judge, had directed her to continue with the matter.
She however said all applications pending in the case must be heard before any other step was taken in the case.
One of the applications by Alao is seeking the court to set aside its ruling by which it dismissed his previous application to quash the charges.
Punch
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