Court declines travel request of Jumoke Akinjide’s co defendant

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Wednesday dismissed the application to travel abroad for medical treatment, one of the co-defendants of a former Minister, Mrs Jumoke Akinjide standing trial for an alleged N650m money laundering charge.

Mrs Olarewaju Otiti is the third defendant in a criminal charge brought against against the former minister of the Capital Territory by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC).

Justice Muslim Hassan in dismissing Mrs Otiti’s application to travel abroad for medical treatment said that there is no evidence to show that her illness cannot be treated in Nigeria.

The judge also added that the doctor’s report attached to the affidavit is merely computer-generated documents without any foundation of the authenticity.

The judge also said that if the court grants such application and third defendant refuses to return it will be difficult to secure her arrest in the United State of America.

The judge refused the application as lacking in merit and subsequently dismissed it.

The case was later adjourned to 16th of May for the continuation of cross extermination of prosecution witness Usman Zakari.

The defendants were arraigned in June last year for receiving the sum of N650m from the former minister of Petroleum Resources Mrs Diezani Alison Maduekwe.

The EFCC, in the 24 charges filed against the defendants, alleged that they collected the sum of N650m from a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, in the build-up to the 2015 general elections.

The anti-graft agency claimed that they ought to have “reasonably known that the money formed part of proceeds of an unlawful act.”

Akinjide was said to have allegedly given a cash sum of N107.4m to Otiti and N134.4m to Adeseun out of the N650m on March 26, 2015.