MONEY LAUNDERING: Fani-Kayode’s Trial Halted Again Over The Absence Of Documents




Fani-Kayode is facing a 40-count charge of laundering some N100m during his service as the minister for culture and tourism and then aviation minister.

The case against him was brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The former minister was first put in trial in 2008.

When the trial began on Monday, the prosecution’s first witness, Okechukwu Okeke, testified before the court.

Okeke, a Relationship Officer with First City Monument Bank (FCMB), said that Fani-Kayode’s account at the bank had been dormant.

"The account was first with First Atlantic Bank before it was acquired by Finbank which was also acquired by FCMB," he said.

But the court ended when the prosecution counsel, Festus Keyamo, proffered Fani-Kayode’s bank statement of account between August 2008 and September 2012, but could not tender the statement between 2004 and 2008 – the period during which the defendant served as minister.

"We had written to the IT department of the bank after the last sitting when the court fixed trial dates. They generated the one we tendered before the court. They said we should give them one week," Keyamo said.

Fani-Kayode’s lawyer, Ifedayo Adedipe, attempted to secure a long adjournment for continuation of the trial, but the judge, Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, turned the request down, saying that the trial had dragged on for too long.

The trial has been adjourned till March 18 and 19.

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