EFCC Press Release
Justice E. S. Chukwu of the
Federal High Court, Maitama, Abuja, on Wednesday, December 17, 2014 adjourned
ruling on the extradition proceedings brought by the office of Attorney General
of the Federation against former managing director of Nigeria Security Minting
and Printing Company, NSMPC, Ehidiamhem Okoyomon, to January 23, 2015.
Okoyomon is wanted in the
United Kingdom over his alleged role in the bribery scandal involving officials
of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the NSMPC and Securency International Pty of
Australia between 2006 and 2008.
In a bid to stall his
extradition to the UK for trial over the alleged bribe scam, Okoyomon had in
October, through his counsel, Alex Iziyon, SAN, challenged the jurisdiction of
the court to entertain the application to extradite him.
Iziyon had argued that the
1931 treaty which the prosecution counsel M. S. Hassan relied upon had been
repealed by Decree No 87 of 1966, and was not a law.
Hassan had however
countered his argument explaining that the 1931 treaty became applicable to
Nigeria in 1935 and was never repealed by any enactment, stressing that
schedule 2 under extradition law provides that “the law shall apply to all
Commonwealth nations”.
It would be recalled that
Justice Chukwu after listening to the argument of both counsel had on October
7, 2014 fixed December 1, 2014 for ruling on the matter.
However, justice Chukwu
adjourned his ruling on that day (December 1, 2014) to December 17, 2014 for
reasons that he had not finished writing the ruling.
At the resumed sitting
today, the judge asked both the prosecuting and defence counsel to come back on
January 23, 2015 as the ruling was almost ready.
Wilson
Uwujaren
Head,
Media & Publicity
17th
December, 2014
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