Former Governor of Oyo State, Chief Rasheed Ladoja has lost his bid to stop his trial before a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos. In a ruling delivered on Tuesday, March 30, Justice Ahmed Ramat  Mohammed threw out the three applications through which Ladoja  sought to quash all the charges preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

 Ladoja had argued in the applications that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear all the charges imputed to him as framed. Besides, he argued that all the charges bordered on alleged money laundering offences and that  the Money Laundering Prohibition Act(2004) only empowered the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, to try offenders on such offences, not the EFCC. He also claimed that the proof of evidence placed before the court by the EFCC had no nexus with the charges and that it did not disclose any prima facie case against him. 

 In his ruling, Justice Mohammed said that “objection to a defect in a charge can only be made on the day of arraignment when the applicant is taking his plea and not afterwards”. He held that any such objection on the framing of charges against Ladoja by the EFCC could not, therefore, succeed. He also said that  since Ladoja “did not raise any objection to the EFCC trying him in line with the Money Laundering Prohibition  Act (2004), it is too late to object to the Act when he has taken his plea”. The Judge also ruled that the proof of evidence placed before the court by the EFCC had links with the charges preferred against Ladoja and that a prima facie case had been disclosed against him. He therefore quashed all the motions brought against the EFCC and fixed the commencement of trial for April 13^th , 2010.

 Ladoja is being tried by the EFCC, together with one of his former aides, Waheed Akanbi and some companies linked to him on charges of money laundering and diversion of public funds. He was  originally arraigned by the EFCC on August 28^th, 2008 with four of his former aides and a company: Chief Adewale Atanda, Waheed Akanbi; Abiodun Kola Daisi; Mr Gregory Otsu and Heritage Apartments Limited, on a 33 count- charge. He was re-arraigned  on March 25^th, 2009  with one of his aides, Waheed Akanbi. The EFCC removed the name of  his former Commissioner of Finance, Chief Adewale Atanda, who was initially charged with Ladoja and made him one of its prosecution witnesses. With his failure to quash all the charges preferred against him, the EFCC is succeeding in getting him to answer to all the allegations of money laundering and diversion of public funds filed against him.