The trial of an alleged serial fraudster, Abayomi Kamaldeen Alaka, the alleged kingpin of the dreaded ‘Badoo’ cult that terrorised the Ikorodu area of Lagos Stata, has been adjourned to 27 September 2022.
Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of a Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, adjourned the suit following the absence due to ill-health of the new counsel the prosecutor, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) assigned the case.
Alaka was arraigned alongside Morufu Yahaya, Omitogun Ajayi and Ajisegiri Abiodun before the court for obtaining the sum of Six Hundred and Seventy-Five Million Naira (N675, 000,000.00) under false pretence.
At the resumed hearing of the trial Tuesday, defence counsel, Olalekan Ojo (SAN), informed the court that he was prepared for the trial but was shocked upon hearing that the prosecution had written a letter to the court informing it of his absence.
“My Lord, we are prepared for this trial and the prosecution did not serve anything on us. We were not carried along,” Ojo lamented.
The court confirmed that the prosecution had sent a letter to the court and they should take another date for the continuation of the trial.
EFCC had alleged that sometime in May 2018 at Lagos, within the jurisdiction of the court, the defendants obtained the sum of Six Hundred and Seventy-Five Million Naira from Dr. and Dr. (Mrs.) Lateef Oladimeji Bello for the purpose of conducting prayers for spiritual cleansing of their son and the family and that the money will be refunded after the prayers which pretence they knew to be false.
The offence is said to be contrary to Section 410 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State of Nigeria No. 11 of 2011.
At the resumed hearing of the suit at the last adjourned date, a senior counsel from the EFCC, Mrs Joy Amaihian, told the court that the prosecutor, Nkereuwem Anana, who had handled the trial since their arrangement had been transferred to another jurisdiction.
She further pleaded with the court to grant them adjournment to enable the Commission to re-assigned another counsel to take over the case file.
Meanwhile, the defence counsel, Mr Ojo, who did not oppose the application, however, expressed dismay that the Commission did not make arrangements to ensure the trial was not stalled.
He added that the Commission did not communicate with the defence team about the update and decided to waste their time by coming to court.
“I’m surprised that the agency will transfer counsel without an adequate replacement. It is also not good that they did not communicate to us that the matter is not going on today. If they had told me I’ll not be in this court today,” Ojo had said.
But counsel to the Commission objected to Ojo’s position saying that on the last adjourned date, Mr Anana was not in court but a junior counsel from the Commission stood in for him,” she said.
The trial judge, in adjudicating over the issue raised by the prosecution counsel, said the record of the court is clear on what happened on the last adjourned date, stressing that Mr Anana, though came late for the matter, was present in court.
“My record is very clear on what happened on the last adjourned date. Mr Anana was present in court. He was late and the court had to wait for him so it was not correct that he was not present in court,” the court held.
Subsequently, Justice Taiwo adjourned further hearing till 21st September 2022 for the continuation of the trial.
It would be recalled that trouble started when the complainants wrote a petition to the EFCC to report being swindled by the defendants under the disguise of spiritual cleansing.