The absence
of the Chairman of Innoson Motors Nigeria Ltd, Innocent Chukwuma, yesterday
stalled his arraignment at a Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos.
The trial
judge, Mojisola Dada, had on February 9, 2018 issued a bench warrant against
the accused.
This
followed his failure to appear in court on two previous proceedings to take his
plea.
The judge
had ordered that he be arrested and kept in custody till yesterday, which was
the next adjourned date.
The Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) filed a four-count charge against him
bordering on conspiracy to obtain property by false pretenses, stealing and
forgery.
According to
the prosecutor, the defendants committed the offences between 2009 and July
2011 in Lagos.
However,
during proceedings yesterday, Justice Dada disclosed that the defendant had
filed a petition against her to the National Judicial Commission (NJC).
She said she
would not take further steps in the hearing of the case until she responds to
the undisclosed grounds in the petition against her.
“I have no
personal interest in this case, in fact, I’ll be relieved if this case is taken
off me, as it would be a reduction of my work load. This case is adjourned till
April 25, for arraignment,” she said.
At the
resumed hearing, the defence counsel, Mr. George Uweche (SAN), told the court
that he had filed four applications before the court.
He prayed
the court to hear the applications before Innoson could be arraigned.
Uweche
disclosed that despite the pending appeal over the matter in the higher court,
EFCC had again just served the defence with an amended charge.
He said: “We
have just been served the amended charge by the EFCC, My Lord, there is a
notice of appeal filed against the order of this honourable court.”
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