Judge’s absence stalls trial of Nnamani

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Thursday fixed March 4, 2014 for the continuation of the trial of a former Governor of Enugu State, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani.

Nnamani alongside seven others are being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on 105 counts of money laundering.

The others are Sunday Anyaogu, Rainbownet (Nigeria) Limited, Hillgate (Nigeria) Limited, Cosmos FM, Capital City Automobile (Nigeria) Limited, Renaissance University Teaching Hospital and Mea Mater Elizabeth High School.

The case, which was fixed for trial on Thursday, could not hold due to the absence of the trial judge, Justice Mohammed Yunusa.

Yunusa was said to be away on official assignment.

A new date, March 4, 2014, was therefore fixed for the trial.

At the last adjourned date on May 16, Yunusa had granted leave to the accused to travel overseas for medical attention.

On May 28, the judge also granted an application by Ricky Tarfa (SAN), counsel to the accused, seeking extension of time in order for his client to conclude his medical treatment abroad.

The case was then adjourned till December 12 for trial.

Nnamani and the others were re-arraigned before Yunusa on March 7, following the transfer of the previous judge, Justice Charles Archibong.

They had pleaded not guilty to the charge, while Yunusa had allowed them to continue on the earlier bail granted by Archibong.

The accused were alleged to have laundered various sums of money to the tune of N5 billion and had lodged same in a secret account.

Nnamani and the others were also accused of laundering various statutory allocations of some Local Government Areas of Enugu State.

The local governments are: Aninri, Enugu South, Agwu, Igbo Etiti and Isi Uzor.

He was also alleged to have stolen N1.4 billion from the excess crude oil funds allocated to local governments in the state.

It was alleged that the former governor, through the help of one Chinero Nwigwe, who is now at large, fraudulently transferred millions of dollars of state funds to his personal accounts in the United States of America.

These offences were allegedly committed while Nnamani held sway as governor of the Coal City state between 1999 and 2007.

The alleged offences were said to have contravened the provisions of the Money laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004.