On Monday, Olakunle Oluomo, the impeached Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly, appeared in a Federal High Court in Oke Mosan, Abeokuta.
The former Speaker was docked with two other state Assembly officers, Dayo Samuel and Adeyemo Adedeji.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC, charged Oluomo and the couple with suspected N2.5 billion misappropriation in court.
Oluomo allegedly perpetrated the scam while acting as Speaker of the Assembly in 2022.
Aside from the N2.5 billion fraud case, 18 of 26 MPs supported his impeachment on grounds of high-handedness, egregious misbehavior, arrogance, bad leadership style, lack of focus and transparency, and pitting members against one another.
This former Speaker, however, has pledged to fight back, telling journalists that he has filed a legal action against Assembly members.
On Monday, just after the trio entered the dock, the court realized that the EFCC’s counsel was absent.
However, Justice O.O Okeke delayed the case until February 29th and March 1st.
Journalists barred
Earlier, a Platinum Times reporter arrived in the court at 9:15 a.m. and sat a few chairs away from the former Speaker.
At 10:04 a.m., the presiding judge, Justice Okeke, stepped out of her chamber, and as the Speaker’s case was mentioned, two officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, NSCDC, approached the DAILY POST reporter, insisting that he leave the courtroom per the Court Registrar’s orders.
When the DAILY POST reporter visited the Acting Court Registrar in his office and questioned why he was barred from watching the proceedings, he denied ever issuing such orders.
The registrar also summoned the NSCDC officer into his office for interrogation.
However, the NSCDC officer, who removed his name tag, denied ordering the journalist out of court, claiming, “I only asked him to meet the Registrar before covering the proceeding.”