By Soni Daniel

Former governor of Nasarawa State, Akwe Doma and two others, yesterday, lost their bid to force Justice Agatha Okeke of the Federal High Court, Lafia, to hands off the case of money laundering preferred against them by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

They lost the bid with the judge ruling that she will continue to hear the case as the issue of bias raised by them did not arise and had not been proved.

The application for the judge to withdraw from the case was by Timothy Anjide, the second accused person in the matter involving Aliyu Akwe Doma, Anjide and Dauda Egwe, who are being prosecuted on a 10-count charge bordering on money laundering by EFCC.

At the resumed hearing in the matter, the defence counsel brought an application for an order of the court to transfer the case.

The defence alleged that there had been instances in the proceedings that suggested a likelihood of bias by the judge.

However, the prosecuting counsel, urged the court to dismiss the application, arguing that the application did not show that the first and third accused had lost confidence in the court.

Justice Okeke held that the application for transfer of the case lacked merit and adjourned the case till January 19, 20 and 21, 2015 for continuation of trial.