Justice Inyang Ekwo of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, threatened to strike out a suit by a former Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Kenneth Minimah (retd.), seeking to stop his planned prosecution for an alleged N13bn fraud.
The judge became angry when the matter was called and the counsel for the ex-army chief, Efut Okoi, asked to be given more time to enable him complete his amended processes.
Okoi attributed the delay in amending his processes to one of his witnesses being indisposed.
“In the course of filing our amended statement of claims, one of our witnesses was indisposed. We brought this to the notice of the defendants. We are in the process of filing; we apologise, my Lord,” he stated.
But Justice Ekwo wondered why an application that was brought since 2020 had taken almost two years and the plaintiffs had not been able to put their house in order.
“You are not serious. I have told you how I feel. I don’t know how those feelings will manifest hereafter,” the judge reacted.
Counsel for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Sylvanus Tahir, said he viewed Minimah lawyer’s attitude with “serious concern” because it was delaying the prosecution.
“They came with an ex parte motion to restrain the EFCC from criminally prosecuting them before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory. Time waits for no one,” Tahir stated.
The judge agreed to give the plaintiffs a grace of one month to do the needful.
“If by the next day, you come to court and say you have just served them (respondents) or you served them seven days before the adjourned date, I will strike out this suit,” the judge threatened.
Justice Ekwo fixed March 23 for hearing of the suit.
Minimah, Major General A. O. Adetayo and Brigadier General R. I. Odi, had in 2020 instituted a case in which they prayed for an order restraining the Attorney-General of the Federation and the anti-graft agency from trying them at a FCT High Court for allegedly misappropriating N13.7bn belonging to the Nigerian Army.
One of their arguments was that as army Generals, they could only be arraigned and/or prosecuted by a court martial of the Nigerian Army.
Speaking with journalists at the end of the proceedings, Tahir explained that so far, the anti-graft agency’s investigation showed that the three Army Generals misappropriated over N13bn, while N370m had so far been recovered from them.
He dismissed their claim that the EFCC had no powers to put them on trial for the alleged criminal offence.
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