Justice Lesley Wike of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, has threatened to issue arrest warrant against a former President of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Staff Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society, Olalekan Ogunbayo, for his absence in Court to take plea in alleged ₦582M Fraud charges.
The Judge issued the threat on Monday when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC complained against the third time failure of Ogunbayo to appear in Court for arraignment on the alleged financial misappropriation.
When the case was called on Monday, EFCC lawyer, R. U. Adagba informed the Court only the 2nd accused person, Abolade Nurudeen was in Court.
The lawyer complained that Ogunbayo was granted administrative bail but jumped the bail and that all efforts to locate him for service of the charge have been unsuccessful.
EFCC stated Ogunbayo had stalled the arraignment twice due to absence in Court and applied that bench warrant be issued against him to facilitate his arrest and production in Court.
Adagba cited sections 35, 113, 114 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, arguing that the court has the power to order arrest of the accused person.
However, Counsel to the defendants, Innocent Adoo, opposed the arrest warrant application, arguing that arraignment in a criminal trial could not proceed without proper service of the charge on the defendant.
He submitted that a defendant must be informed of the allegations against him and given adequate opportunity to prepare his defence, adding that service could not be waived by any party.
Adoo told the court that Ogunbayo was still on administrative bail and was unaware of the scheduled arraignment.
He explained that the defence had used the information available to it to communicate with Ogunbayo who was said to be in Warri and unable to secure a flight to Abuja for today’s proceedings..
The defence counsel consequently urged the court to adjourn the matter to enable both defendants to appear and take their pleas in the interest of justice.
In his ruling, Justice Wike held that, in the interest of justice, the matter should be adjourned to enable the first defendant to appear for arraignment.
The judge, however, warned that the court would take the necessary steps if Ogunbayo fails to appear on the next adjourned date.
The matter was adjourned until November 23 for arraignment.
The defendants are facing eight counts bordering on alleged criminal misappropriation, abuse of office, corrupt practices and obtaining money by false pretence over the sale of the cooperative society’s property at Plot 50, Karsana North, Abuja.
The prosecution alleged that Ogunbayo, the society’s president, and Nurudeen, who operates under the name and style of Abolade Nurudeen & Co., conspired in January 2024 to misappropriate proceeds from the transaction.
In one of the counts, the defendants were accused of dishonestly misappropriating N582 million realised from the sale of the property.
Ogunbayo was also accused of allegedly receiving N100 million, N10 million and N50 million through different bank accounts in connection with the transaction.
The prosecution further alleged that Nurudeen received N180 million into an account belonging to his firm after representing that the property had been sold for N1 billion.
Both defendants were also accused of involvement in an alleged N160 million corrupt transaction.