A former Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN)

Justice Othman Musa of the FCT High Court in Maitama has given an order to remit to the Chief Judge of the court, the case file of a former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke.

The judge’s directive followed the request by Adoke’s lawyer, Benson Igbanoi, for an adjournment of the hearing of a bail application filed on behalf of the former AGF to enable the applicant’s legal team to respond to the counter-affidavit filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in opposition to it.

Igbanoi, holding the brief for Adoke’s lead counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome, had at the Tuesday’s proceedings urged Justice Musa, who sits as the court’s vacation judge, to adjourn the hearing to January 2.

However, the EFCC’s counsel, Bala Sanga, noted that it was better to have the application sent back to the judge handling the pending criminal charges since the vacation of the court’s judges would end soon.

The judge thereafter agreed with Sanga, noting that since the 14-day detention order he had issued on December 20 would end on January 2, and other judges of the court would resume from their vacation on January 6, “the appropriate order to make is to remit the case file back to the Chief Judge for reassignment to another judge”.

The judge’s order meant that the bail application will no longer be heard until after the court resumes from its ongoing vacation on January 6.

Adoke, who had since 2016 been charged with $1.1bn Malabu Oil scam, returned to the country, ending his over four years self-exile on December 19.

He was subsequently arrested on arrival at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja by operatives of the International Police Organisation and handed over to the EFCC, who subsequently applied for and got an order to detain him for 14 days.-Daily Trust