The judge handling the trial of Innoson Motors and its owner at the Special Offences Court in Lagos, Justice Mojisola Dada has withdrawn from the case.
Her withdrawal followed complaints which lawyers to Innoson Chukwuma, CEO of Innoson Motors, filed against Ms Dada at the National Judicial Council, asking the body to compel her to withdraw from the case.
Chukwuma was due to be finally arraigned on June 21, but the proceeding stalled after Ms Dada failed to appear in court.
Earlier this year, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC filed four-count charge of criminal conspiracy of obtaining property by under pretense, stealing and forgery in a transaction with GTBank.
Anti-graft detectives said the suspects committed the offences between 2009 and July 2011 in Lagos, according to court filings. Chukwuma denied the allegations, and declined to turn up in court for trial.
In May, Ms Dada declared Chukwuma wanted, accusing him of defying the judiciary by failing to appear in court despite several summons. The judge first issued a bench warrant for Chukwuma to appear before her in her courtroom in Ikeja, Lagos, on February 9.
But while the battle for Chukwuma to appear the court was still on, his lawyers approached the NJC to compel the judge to recuse herself from the case. In a February 12 petition to the NJC, the lawyers said the circumstances that led to some of Ms Dada’s pronouncements in the matter were suspicious and should be investigated by the top disciplinary body.
Although the NJC said its internal investigations established no wrongdoings against Ms Dada, the body nonetheless recommended that the case should be assigned to another judge.
The prosecution of Chukwuma by the EFCC is proceeding in parallel with the lawsuit the industrialist filed against GTBank, accusing it of charging arbitrary deductions to its accounts. The bank has denied the allegations, and the Supreme Court returned the matter to the Court of Appeal in Enugu earlier this month.
The Court of Appeal reserved ruling on key applications in the suit to an indefinite date at the last hearing on June 14.