The former speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiiji, says his acquittal from money laundering related charges and prosecution that spanned over 12 years was a harrowing experience.
The speaker said his joy knew no bounds, describing the experience as a “rebirth of sorts”.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday, cleared the former speaker of 54 charges brought against him by the EFCC.
Justice Mohammed Liman dismissed the charges brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), ruling that the prosecution did not meet the legal burden of proof required.
Addressing newsmen on Wednesday in Lagos, Ikuforiji said: “I am a very happy man. It feels so great to be free after 12 and half years of prosecution and persecution.
“It is a long story. Since 48 hours that I am free, I am extremely grateful to God. When I got out of the court, I called my wife Mayowa, because I did not tell her while going to the court that day.
“I was even joking with my friend, when the Judge came, that if I had seen a Black Maria, I will have to run away.
“As a strong believer, I always believed in what Almighty Allah decreed. But there are some things as a man in flesh that you begin to ask second questions.
“I was at the House of Assembly for 12 years; 10 years, I was speaker and there was no time the lawmakers fought. The Lagos assembly was the best because of the harmonious relationship.
“But if after 10 years of being speaker and leading a progressive house, making progressive laws, even the National Assembly came to learn some things from us, we passed the FOI Act before them even the Child Rights Law.”
Ikuforiji, who served as Lagos speaker from 2005 to 2015, said he was wrongly prosecuted but would not sue the EFCC for that.
“I suffered for 12 and half years over wrongful allegations, I suffered unnecessarily for that period, what was my offence and what did I do?
“A faceless petitioner wrote to the EFCC that the assembly arm twisted the Lagos state government to pay N500 million to it monthly and later, I was accused of embezzling the money, amounting to N7 billion.
“Is that not ridiculous that the members did not do anything that I allegedly made away with N500m for 14 months?
“I got a call from the director of EFCC while going to Umrah, I told him I will honour the invitation when I come back. I called him when I returned and he said I should come, I went there that Friday morning and I spent the weekend on the floor of EFCC cell.
“They showed me the petition and I faulted it, the person that wrote it, no telephone number.
They asked for the other members and I told them that I don’t need to get others because I was in charge.
According to him, I spent the weekend there and was released on bail, EFCC came to the house, combed the books for three months and saw nothing.
“I suffered the agony for over 12 and half years. Many sleepless nights. I thank my Family, colleagues, friends and the media for standing by me.
“The EFCC started with 200 charges and trimmed it to 54 and no one said embezzlement.
“Today we are grateful to God that at the end of it all, we have been vindicated. The honest thing is that in the Quran, even in the dark, there is always an element of light.
”I am now a Barrister at Law. This case was what pushed me toward reading law. I was doing well as speaker; my lawyers came up with other things and I felt it was time for me to be learned.
“That is something good, if this trouble was not thrown at me, I won’t be a lawyer today. My family suffered a great deal. Members of the house stood by me. Most of them followed me to court-on-court day, I am grateful to them.
”Lots of our leaders who were praying with me, I salute them. My wife is a Christian and they have been praying for years. God was really merciful to me and gave me people who supported me.
“Today I am a free man, June 24, 2024 remains a second birthday to me because that is the day of my independence, the day I smelt freedom.
“In 2014, the Federal High Court said I had no case to answer and it went to the Supreme Court and the case was reassigned and here we are today,” Ikuforiji said.
He, however, said the charges might have been politically or socially engineered but what mattered the most was that as a politician, stuff like that was expected.
On whether he planned to contest for elective position in 2027, the former speaker said it is God that would determine that.
