Trial of former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, for N2.2billion fraud was stalled on Monday due to the failure of the prosecution to bring its witness to court.
Fayose is standing trial along with a firm, Spotless Investment Limited.
Prosecuting counsel for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), told Justice C.J. Aneke of the Federal High Court in Lagos that the witness could not come to court as scheduled because one of his relatives had been admitted in a COVID-19 isolation centre.
Jacobs, therefore, urged the judge to adjourn the case.
Defence counsel, Mr Olalekan Ojo (SAN), did not object to the request for an adjournment.
Justice Aneke 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 former Ekiti 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 anti-graft agency also alleged that Fayose purchased a property known as No.44, Osun Crescent, Maitama, Abuja, for N200million in the name of “your elder sister, Mrs Moji Oladeji.”
Fayose and Spotless Investment Limited, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.