{"id":145986,"date":"2023-05-04T21:18:49","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T20:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmail-ng.com\/?p=145986"},"modified":"2023-05-04T21:18:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T20:18:49","slug":"ex-lagos-speaker-denies-laundering-n338-8m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmail-ng.com\/ex-lagos-speaker-denies-laundering-n338-8m\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Lagos Speaker denies laundering N338.8m"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A former Lagos Speaker <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Adeyemi_Ikuforiji\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Adeyemi Ikuforiji\u00a0<\/a>has told the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos that he did not launder N338.8 million while in office as alleged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).<\/p>\n<p>Ikuforiji, in his \u201cno case\u201d submission before Justice Muhammad Lima, claimed the charge preferred against him was politically motivated.<\/p>\n<p>He testified that the initial allegations by EFCC were fraud and misappropriation of funds, but that the Commission later switched it to money laundering.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a pity that I am standing trial today based on a faceless petition that has no name or address of the writer, who alleged that I committed fraud or misappropriated the sum of over N7billion,\u201d the defendant said.<\/p>\n<p>Ikuforiji said that as a three-term Speaker, if he indeed committed such infraction, his case would not have gone directly to the EFCC for trial, rather members of the House would have first impeached him before handing him over to a law enforcement agency<\/p>\n<div class=\"kmtvbcgf kmtvbcgf-post-inline kmtvbcgf-float-center kmtvbcgf-align-center kmtvbcgf-column-1 kmtvbcgf-clearfix no-bg-box-model\">\n<div id=\"kmtvbcgf-1734859-1005043919\" class=\"kmtvbcgf-container kmtvbcgf-type-code \" data-adid=\"1734859\" data-type=\"code\">\n<div id=\"kmtvbcgf-1734859-1005043919-place\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Denying the allegation of money laundering, Ikuforiji said as head of the legislative arm of government, his role in any financial issue was to give final approval to \u00e0ny memo put before him after the Office of the Clerk and that of the Finance Department had done their bit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t handle cash or disbursement of funds, it was the duty of the Office of the Clerk and the Finance Department to do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>When asked if the 2nd defendant, Oyebode Atoyebi, who was his personal assistant, collected cash on his behalf, Ikuforiji replied: \u201cAtoyebi collected money or cash for the Office of the Speaker, who at that time had over 100 staff, and definitely not for him in person. Atoyebi can collect money for the running of the office of the Speaker and allowances of other Staff\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr. Ibisola Olawoyin Ogayemi, and a former banker from First Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Kayode Motunrayo, also testified.<\/p>\n<p>The court adjourned till June 1 and 2 for continuation of trial.<\/p>\n<p>Ikuforiji is standing trial alongside his former Personal Assistant, Oyebode Atoyebi on a 54-count charge bordering on the offence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former Lagos Speaker Adeyemi Ikuforiji\u00a0has told the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos that he did not launder N338.8 million while in office as alleged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Ikuforiji, in his \u201cno case\u201d submission before Justice Muhammad Lima, claimed the charge preferred against him was politically motivated. He testified [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":145988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2],"tags":[1863,17,6378,404],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ex-Lagos Speaker denies laundering N338.8m | New Mail Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newmail-ng.com\/ex-lagos-speaker-denies-laundering-n338-8m\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ex-Lagos Speaker denies laundering N338.8m | New Mail Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A former Lagos Speaker Adeyemi Ikuforiji\u00a0has told the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos that he did not launder N338.8 million while in office as alleged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). 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