The former governor of Enugu State, southeast Nigeria, Dr.
Chimaroke Nnamani, standing trial before the Federal High Court in Lagos,
Southwest Nigeria, on alleged money laundering offences amounting to about N5
billion, has sought the order of the court to travel outside Nigeria to keep
his scheduled medical appointment.
He is also urging the court to direct the Chief Registrar of the
court to release his international passport to enable him travel for the said
medical appointment.
His counsel, Rickey Tarfa, SAN, in his argument told the court
Monday that sometime in 2008, the accused former governor was diagnosed of
having an illness for which he went to the United States of America several
times for treatment. Thereafter he started having symptoms of the said sickness
again.
He reported same to his physician who advised him to come to the
US immediately for medical checkup.
Tarfa also contended that the accused was granted leave to
travel by the court on 5 April, 2012 on account of his failing health and has
since returned to the country and was present on the last adjourned date 7
March, 2013.
In view of this, the accused is willing to return to Nigeria
after his treatment. Consequently, he urged the count to grant the request of
Nnamani.
However, counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, Kelvin Nzozie, asked the court not only to refuse Nnamani’s
application to travel but to dismiss all the grounds.
He argued that if the accused former governor is allowed to
travel he may not come back to face trial because on 5 April, 2012 when the
court allowed him to travel to the US for medical treatment, after the medical
treatment, he refused to return to Nigeria until EFCC sought the intervention
of the American security authorities to bring him back to Nigeria to face his
trial.
Nzozie also urged the court to adjourn till Tuesday, 15 April,
2013, for him to argue the counter affidavit he filed before the court.
However, Tarfa told the court that the accused should be allowed
to stay away from court because of his failing health.
The presiding judge, Mohammed Yinusa, while adjourning till
Tuesday, accede to the request of Tarfa.
In the same vain, another accused person standing trial with the
former governor, Sunday Anyaogu, was advised to stay away from court Tuesday
since the application does not concern him.
No comments:
Post a Comment