Former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, was absent on Tuesday at the Federal High Court, Abuja, stalling his trial on alleged $2.1 billion arms scam.
Mr Fani-Kayode’s lawyer, Ahmed Raji, was in court. But the former minister, who is the sole defendant in the suit before Justice John Tsoho, was absent.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had on November 10, 2016, arraigned Fani-Kayode for allegedly receiving N26 million from the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.
Fresh money laundering charges were earlier filed against him by the EFCC before the same court in Abuja.
The anti-graft agency, in the fresh case, filed a five-count charge in which it accused the defendant of diverting N26 million allegedly received from Dasuki.
The anti-graft agency also accused him of handling the fund without going through financial institution as required under the Money Laundering Act.
At the resumed trial on Tuesday, EFCC’s lawyer, Mohammed Abubakar, told Justice Tsoho that the commission was ready for trial continuation.
However, Mr Raji explained that the defendant was unaware of the new date because the court did not sit in the last adjourned date.
According to him, we were not aware of the case coming today because this matter was not adjourned.
He, however, told the court that the prosecution had agreed with him to adjourn the matter till March subject to the convenience of the court.
Justice Tsoho, then, adjourned the matter till March 10 and 11 respectively for trial continuation.
