The trial of a former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, and a limited liability company, Spotless Investment Limited, charge along with him for ₦2.2 billion fraud was unable to go on today due to the failure of the EFCC prosecution to bring his witness to court.
The EFCC prosecuting counsel, Mr Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), told the presiding Judge Chukwujekwu Aneke that a relative of the witness scheduled to testify today had been admitted into a COVID-19 isolation centre.
Consequently, Jacobs urged the judge to adjourn the case.
The defence counsel, Mr Olalekan Ojo (SAN), raise no objection to the request for an adjournment.
Justice Aneke then adjourned the matter till October 20, 2020.
In the charges, the EFCC alleged, among other things, that Fayose, on June 17, 2014, “took possession of the sum of N1, 219, 000,000 to fund your 2014 gubernatorial campaign in Ekiti State, which you reasonably ought to have known formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful act, to wit: criminal breach of trust/stealing.”
The ex-governor was also alleged to have on the same day “received a cash payment of $5,000,000 from Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, the then Minister of State for Defence, which sum exceeded the amount authorised by law and you thereby committed an offence contrary to sections 1 and 16(d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended) and punishable under Section 16 (2)(b) of the same Act.”
The EFCC also alleged that Fayose purchased a property known as No.44, Osun Crescent, Maitama, Abuja for ₦200m in the name of “his elder sister, Mrs Moji Oladeji.”
But Fayose and Spotless Investment Limited pleaded not guilty to the charges. Fayose is currently on bail.
