By Olasunkanmi Akoni, WAHAB ABDULLAH and OSCARLINE ONWUMENYI
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos yesterday ordered the speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji and his Personal Assistant, Oyebode Alade Atoyebi to appear before it to answer a charge preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The directive given by Justice James Tsoho was sequel to allegation by the EFCC that the speaker and his aide refused to accede to a summon served on them to appear before the court.The Speaker, who the anti graft agency said was to answer a 20-count charge of fraud related charge, was billed to be arraigned yesterday.

When the matter came up before the court yesterday, the EFCC prosecuting counsel, Godwin Obla, told the court that the Speaker reneged on his promise to submit himself to the anti-graft agency, as according to the Investigating Police Officer, the duo were requested to present themselves to the EFCC on Thursday, but that they pleaded that they should be allowed to present themselves on Friday due to their legislative work, but surprisingly, non of them turned up.

On this ground, he urged the court to issue a warrant for the accused to be compelled to appear in court, a request which was granted by the court.

After the order of the court, the matter was adjourned till January 17, 2012 for arraignment.

However, the Action Congress of Nigeria, (ACN) in its reaction to the court summon said the arraignment was a planned one, which made the EFCC invite the media to cover the proceedings. The party said it was surprised that the agency is planning an arraignment when the accused person had not been formally served with court papers. It added that if the agency had followed due process it would have either served the Speaker a summon or informed his lawyers of the plan. In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Osogbo, Osun State, on Friday, the party said, “Instead, they phoned the Speaker late on Thursday that they wanted him to report to their office to shed more light on their investigations, to which he responded that he was sitting till late and would honour the invitation on Friday.”

massive corruption and fraud by the rather influential Speaker of the Lagos State legislature. Specifically, one of the petitions said to be written by an activist in the state alleged that the Speaker is an ex-convict in the United States of America before his return to the country and entry into politics.

The petition further alleged that Mr. Ikuforiji has used his position as Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly to collect a monthly running cost of N500 million on a first line charge.

According to the petition, “In the last 14 months, he has collected not less than N7 billion which he has been funneling abroad to buy properties through proxies and his automobile company called Brown Motors, located at 2 Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, Maryland, Ikeja Lagos.