N5bn fraud: Akingbola has case to answer Supreme Court
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akaahs said that justice archibong acted like a military dictator when he descended into the arena and chided the prosecution for their inability to prosecute and therefore removed his toga of impartiality1 the supreme court on friday ordered erastus akingbola to return to the federal high court lagos to answer his alleged five billion naira fraud charge1 justice tanko muhammad leading a five-man panel affirmed the feb. 20 2015 judgment of the court of appeal in lagos which overturned the federal high courts decision striking out the charges against akingbola1 justice sidi bage who read the lead judgment of the apex court held that akingbolas appeal challenging the court of appeals judgment lacked merit1 he ordered that the case file be remitted to the federal high court lagos for expeditious trial and to be handled by another judge1 justice kumai akaahs a member of the panel in addition to agreeing with the lead judgment said that he was worried by the stand of the trial judge in the matter1 akingbola is a former managing director of the defunct intercontinental bank plc1 he constituted himself into a military dictator and this is regarded as judicial tyranny and a case of bias was established against the judge1 according to akaahs while we have immunity we do not have absolute powers to do and undo1 it will be recalled that akingbola s trial was prematurely terminated in april 2012 by justice charles archibong whose decision in the case later culminated in his compulsory retirement from the bench1 archibong in a judgment he delivered on april 2 2012 struck out the 26 counts contained in a charge filed by the economic and financial crimes commission efcc against akingbola1 he said this was on the grounds that the prosecution was not diligent in handling the case1 the judge described the efcc prosecution team as a drain in the public purse and directed the attorney-general of the federation to disband the team1