N5b Fraud: EFCC Asks Court To Separate Former Enugu State Governor, Chimaroke Nnamani's Trial From Co-accused

N5b Fraud: EFCC Asks Court To Separate Former Enugu State Governor, Chimaroke Nnamani's Trial From Co-accused

Justice Mohammed Yunusa of the Federal High Court in Lagos  will on December 16 decides whether  or not to separate the trial of former Enugu State Governor, Chimaroke Nnamani from that of his co-accused.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) filed the application to address what it described as 'judicial scandal' and lack of progress in the case.

According to the anti-graft agency the protracted trial which has been on for seven years without any significant progress is a 'judicial scandal' which the judiciary must decisively address.

The EFCC is prosecuting Nnamani and seven other on 105 count charge for allegedly  laundering various sums of money to the tune of N5 billion belonging to the state through secret account.

Nnamani and others are also being accused of  conspiring to launder various statutory allocations of five local government areas of Enugu State, Aninri, Enugu South, Agwu, Igbo Etiti and Isi Uzor.

The other accused are: Sunday Anyaogu, Rainbownet (Nig) Ltd, Hillgate (Nig) Ltd, Cosmos Fm, Capital City Automobile (Nig) Ltd, Renaissance University Teaching Hospital and Mea Mater Elizabeth High School.

The case, which started in 2007 has not gone to trial because of various interlocutory applications filed by the accused persons over the years.

While moving the application on Tuesday, the EFCC's counsel, Kelvin Uzozie lamented that the matter had been stalled severally on account of Nnamani's frequent applications to travel abroad for medical treatment.

The lawyer maintained that, "It is a scandal that a criminal case that the law says must be speedily concluded has not even proceeded to trial more than seven years after it was filed."

He urged the court to separate Nnamani from other accused persons so that his frequent medical trips abroad would no longer stall the trial of other accused persons.

Uzozie also prayed the court to allow the trial of Nnamani and his former aide, Sunday Onyekazur Anyaogu to be conducted separately from the six companies charged along with them.

The lawyer argued that the application became necessary owing to the need for a speedy conclusion to be arrived at in respect of the assets and liabilities of the companies, which are corporate entities, as the said assets may become obsolete and seriously eroded if the companies were not separately tried.

In his response, Nnamani's lawyer, Ricky Tarfa (SAN) adopted his counter-affidavit to the application, and argued that the application, if granted, would affect fair trial for Nnamani.

Tarfa insisted that contrary to EFCC's allegations, Nnamani had always made himself available for trial after the completion of each phase of medical treatment abroad, and that the trips were aimed at facilitating the recovery process of Nnamani so as to adequately defend himself.

He also submitted that on many occasions, the matter had been adjourned at the instance of the EFCC, and so it was true that he (Nnamani) had been using the medical trips to delay the matter.

Tarfa further argued that the accused would be severely prejudiced if the application is granted, and that no assets would be eroded as canvassed by the EFCC.