Former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu will spend Christmas in prison after a London court again denied him bail.
The Central Criminal Court, London, otherwise known as the Old Bailey, denied Ekweremadu bail on the grounds that he is a flight risk.
The Herald reported in November that Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja ordered the interim forfeiture of 40 properties belonging to Ekweremadu.
The judge directed that anybody who had an interest in the properties should approach the court within 14 days to show course why the properties should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.
Ekweremadu, through his lawyers, approached the court for an order to annul the interim order for the forfeiture of the properties both home and abroad.
The former deputy senate president through his counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), blamed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for his travails, adding that the court granted the forfeiture order inadvertently because the commission withheld information and facts regarding the assets.
In a pre-trial hearing on Tuesday, the London court based its latest decision on the letter and assets forfeiture proceedings against the Enugu West senator by the EFCC.
In the bail application, Ekweremadu’s lawyers argued that the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and the Attorney-General of the Federal had written to the court that Ekweremadu was not a flight risk.
The legal team further reminded the court that the Nigeria High Commission in the UK had equally given the option of tagging Ekweremadu electronically to monitor his movement.
The team equally cited character attestation by other well-respected Nigerians and organisations as well as Ekweremadu’s involvement in other global courses that champion humanity, noting that the Niigerian senator “is a highly regarded, well-known public figure”.
In the same vein, the defence team argued that the lawmaker had shown himself a caring and responsible father and therefore could not possibly escape from London abandoning his wife and sick daughter.
The defence further told the court that they had sureties and securities of nearly half a million pounds sterling from 11 people to secure Ekweremadu’s release on bail.
However, as it did during a bail application hearing in July 2022, the prosecution insisted that Ekweremadu was a flight risk.
The prosecution cited once again, the July 18 letter by the EFCC signed on behalf of the Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa by the Assistant Director Operations, Abdulkarim Chukkoi, and referred to the assets forfeiture proceedings against Ekweremadu in the Federal High Court, Abuja.
In rejecting the bail application, the judge said, “I am entirely satisfied there remains a flight risk,” and noted that bail would not make much difference “as the trial is just over a month away.” CONTINUE READING…
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