The alleged corruption trial of Justice Mohammed Yunusa, which was scheduled to start on Tuesday before the Lagos State Court in Ikeja, was stalled due to change of prosecutor. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is prosecuting Justice Yunusa, alongside one Esther Agbo, who works in the law firm of Rickey Tarfa & Co, for offences bordering on bribery.
The duo were arraigned on five charges before Justice Serifat Sholebo on January 17, 2018. They pleaded not guilty. The trial, which was scheduled to commence today, was, however , stalled as the lead defence counsel, Chief Robert Clarke (SAN), objected to an application by the EFCC to change its counsel. Clarke contended that EFCC’s application for change of counsel, brought to court on Tuesday by the incoming lawyer, Mr. Wahab Shittu, was incompetent as it did not bear the seal and stamp of the Nigerian Bar Association.
He urged the court to hold that the application was invalid. But Shittu said the failure to affix the NBA stamp and seal on the application was neither deliberate nor was an oversight , explaining he had paid for the stamp and seal but had yet to be supplied with it by the NBA. “My Lord , the applicant should not be made to pay for the tardiness of the NBA. “The Access Bank slip for which the payment was made was attached to the application” Shittu said.
