An Abuja High Court on Wednesday
adjourned the trial of a former Chairman of the House of Representatives
Ad-Hoc Committee on Monitoring of the Fuel Subsidy Regime, Farouk
Lawan, to await the report of an appeal filed by the lawmaker.
Lawan and his co-accused person,
Boniface Emenalo, are facing trial over a seven-count criminal charge
bordering on allegations that they demanded and received the sum of
$620,000 as bribe from a businessman, Femi Otedola.
The accused persons had approached the
Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, to challenge the dismissal of an
application in which they sought to quash the charges brought against
them by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences
Commission.
Following the appeal, their counsel,
Rickey Tarfa, SAN, applied for a stay of proceedings in the trial,
pending the determination of the appeal.
The motion for stay of proceedings was
initially dismissed on July 10, but at the resumption of hearing in the
matter on Wednesday, the defence counsel again asked the court to stay
action in the suit.
Prosecuting counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, opposed the request.
“The prayer asking for a stay of
proceedings is not appropriate, a further adjournment may be for another
three weeks, to enable us know the fate of the appeal.
“It will not be right to stay proceedings, as if that is granting the application before the Court of Appeal,” he said.
In a brief ruling, Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi adjourned the matter to enable the court receive a report on the appeal.
Source: Punch
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