Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High court, Abuja on Monday adjourned the arraignment of the the ex-Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Abdullahi Inde-Dikko to 3rd May, 2020.
Her decision followed the failure of the prosecutor, Ebenezer Shogunle to arrest the first defendant, who had allegedly travelled out of the country for medical attention and evaded previous sittings on the charge of fraud brought against him and two others by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC).
Ojukwu said since the last sitting she endorsed the bench warrant for ex-Customs boss arrest but the prosecutor failed to collect it.
She told the prosecutor that : “Usually, the next thing they do before I leave at 4 or 5:00pm, they bring those warrant for my endorsement. I have endorsed the warrant but you have never come for it. Is that not the position? So, you know you are not serious.”
The warrant was necessitated by Dikko’s continued failure to attend court to defend the charge that the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) had brought against him.
Earlier, Shogunle recalled to the court that on the day the matters was adjourned, he was asked to verify the whereabouts of Dikko. He said “we confirmed that the first defendant left Nigeria February 14, three days before the sitting of the court. His destination was Dubai. Currently, the first defendant is reportedly in Lodnon.”
He pleaded with the court to extend the duration of the bench warrant and sought a further date for the arraignment.
With this, the judge told him that the directive was for him to arrest the first defendant and arraign him. She said the prosecutor seemed to be unserious with the matter and if that was the case, he should allow her to discharge the accused.
Her words: “I am not adjourning this matter for the sake of it. If you are not interested in it, let me discharge it. Whenever you are ready to prosecute the first defendant we will re-arraign him.”
Meanwhile, the counsel to the first defendant, Solomon Akuma pleaded to the court that the prosecutor had failed to investigate thoroughly to know whether his client was in the hospital.
He objected to the issuance of any bench warrant on the first defendant, wondering why the prosecutor was insisting on an extension for him to serve the bench warrant despite the previous time he was given to to so to no avail.