Justice O.O. Abike-Fadipe of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, threatened to issue a bench warrant against Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Minister of Aviation, over his \u201cconstant non-appearance\u201d in court on grounds of ill health for his alleged forgery trial.<\/p>\n
Fani-Kayode, who is also being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for an alleged N4.9billion fraud before Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, is facing a 12 count- charge before Justice Abike-Fadipe, following his alleged use of forged medical report(s), which he tendered at the Federal High Court to justify his absence in court.<\/p>\n
One of the counts reads: \u201cThat you, Femi Fani-Kayode, on or about the 11th day of October, 2021 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, by fraudulently used a false document titled: Medical Report On Olufemi Fani-Kayode 60 Years\/Male\/Hosp. No. 00345 Dated 11\/10\/2021 before the Federal High Court, Lagos Judicial Division in charge No. FHC\/L\/251C\/2016 which document you purported to have been issued by Kubwa General Hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another count reads: \u201cThat you, Femi Fani-Kayode, on or about the 23rd day of March, 2021 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, fraudulently used a false document titled: To Whom It May Concern Re: Femi Fani-Kayode Male\/60 Years Hospital. No. 32145 Dated 23rd March 2021 before the Federal High Court, Lagos Judicial Division in charge No. FHC\/L\/251C\/2016 which document you purported to have been issued by Kubwa General Hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pleaded \u201cnot guilty\u201d to the charges when he was arraigned on December 17, 2021.<\/p>\n
At the last sitting on February 20, 2023, the defence counsel, Wale Balogun, had informed the court of the absence of the defendant due to ill-health.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe regret to announce to your lordship that the defendant is not in court due to health reasons; and secondly, due to a running battle he has with both the DSS and the Police,\u201d he had told the court.<\/p>\n
Consequently, the matter was adjourned till May 24 and 25, 2023 for continuation of trial.<\/p>\n
However, at today\u2019s sitting, the counsel who represented the defendant, Chinozo Eze, informed the court of the absence of the defendant.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe absence of the defendant in court is due to health issues,\u201d Eze said.<\/p>\n
He further informed the court that a medical report and a letter seeking the leave of the court to vacate the dates earlier granted by the court had been filed before the court.<\/p>\n
Counsel to the EFCC, Z. Atiku, confirmed the receipt of the said letter, noting that the hands of the prosecution, in the circumstance, were tied.<\/p>\n
Justice Abike-Fadipe expressed displeasure with \u201cthe constant non-appearance of the defendant\u201d, noting that the last time he was in court was November 4, 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeries of excuses have been tendered by the defendant for his non-appearance,\u201d the trial judge noted.<\/p>\n
The court, therefore, threatened to issue a bench warrant against Fani-Kayode, if he again fails to appear in court at the next adjourned date of November 7, 2023.<\/p>\n
\u25aa\ufe0e By Wilson Uwujaren<\/strong>, Head, Media & Publicity, EFCC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Justice O.O. Abike-Fadipe of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, threatened to issue a bench warrant against Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Minister of Aviation, over his \u201cconstant non-appearance\u201d in court on grounds of ill health for his alleged forgery trial. Fani-Kayode, who is also being prosecuted by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":62383,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5879,164,2889],"class_list":["post-64228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-bench-warrant","tag-efcc","tag-fani-kayode"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}