The arraignment of Adeniyi Adeyemi, the alleged head of a non-existent Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, PFIPC, and four others has been fixed for November 18 by a court in Abuja.
The arraignment was stalled on Monday following the absence of the fourth defendant, Florence Omameh, who was reportedly indisposed.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, had amended the charges against Adeyemi, increasing the counts from 22 to 36 and adding four defendants to the case.
The new defendants are Aminu Abdullahi, Ogaba Harry, Florence Omameh and Patricia Akhigbe.
ICPC prosecuting counsel, Sylvanus Tahir, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, informed the court that Omameh’s absence prevented the prosecution from proceeding with the arraignment.
He cited Section 266 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA, which requires defendants to be present during criminal proceedings, except in circumstances permitted by law.
Tahir consequently requested a short adjournment to enable the absent defendant to recover and appear in court.
The case was initially scheduled for the hearing of Adeyemi’s bail application. However, the amended charges required all five defendants to appear before the court to take their pleas.
Defence counsel, Ibrahim Angulu, SAN, did not oppose the amended charges or the adjournment but expressed concern over the length of time Adeyemi had remained in detention.
Justice Yusuf Halilu subsequently adjourned the matter until November 18 for the arraignment of all the defendants.
The judge ordered that Adeyemi be returned to the Kuje Correctional Facility, while the other defendants were directed to return to the ICPC detention facility.
The case was initially instituted by the Nigeria Police Force before the ICPC took over the prosecution.
