Alleged Corruption: EFCC To Arraign Ondo Speaker, Two Others

Having struck out the pre­liminary objection seeking prevention from being tried, an Akure High Court has told Speaker of Ondo State House of Assembly, Bamidele Oloyel­ogun, that he has a case to an­swer in the corruption charges pressed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Oloyelogun was in court on Wednesday to listen to the ruling of the court on his pre­liminary objection.

The speaker, one other lawmaker and a civil servant have been accused of helping themselves with N2.4m being the fund of the Assembly.

Handing down his ruling, the presiding judge, Justice Adegboyega Adebusoye, or­dered that the speaker and other persons standing trials should be arraigned on April 24 and 25, thus dismissing the preliminary objection filed against their trial.

The anti-graft commission had brought Oleyelogun, Fele­mu-Gudu Bankole (a lawmak­er) and a civil servant, Segun Oyadeyi, to court for alleged misappropriation of a sum of N2.4 million belonging to the state House of Assembly.

The accused allegedly mis­appropriated the said sum budgeted for a seminar billed to hold in Lagos.

Mentioning the case for hearing, the lawmakers ob­jected that the EFCC has no jurisdiction over offences af­fecting the finances and assets of Ondo State government on grounds that there’s a subsist­ing law enacted by the Assem­bly to tackle corruption alle­gations in the state.

The applicants in the pre­liminary objection filed by attorney, Mr Femi Emoda­mori, prayed the court to de­cline jurisdiction and strike out the charges against them on grounds subsisting State Public Complaint Financial Crimes and Anti-Corruption Commission Law passed into law and signed by Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu in January, 2022.

But the attorney to EFCC, Mr. Fredrick Dibang, argued that the court had jurisdic­tion because the State law enacted by state Assembly is contrary to the acts of the National Assembly that estab­lished EFCC and once there is conflict between the law of a state and that of the National Assembly, the law of the state is suspended.