The trial of Ismaila Yousouf Atumeyi, a Kogi State House of Assembly candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, and two others before Justice Tijani G. Ringim of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos could not continue today, Tuesday, January 24, 2023, due to the absence of the lead defence counsel, Chief Bolaji Ayorinde, SAN, in court.
Atumeyi is standing trial alongside Ngene Joshua Dominic and Abdulmalik Salau, a former employee of Union Bank Plc, on an 18-count charge bordering on alleged cybercrime and money laundering to the tune of N1.4bn.
One of the counts reads: “That you, Ismaila Yousuf Atumeyi, Ngene Joshua Dominic and Abdulmalik Salau, between August and October, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, conspired among yourselves to directly conceal the sum of N1, 403, 343, 400.00 (One Billion, Four Hundred and Three Million, Three Hundred and Forty-three Thousand, Four Hundred Naira) in the account of FAV Oil and Gas Limited, which sum you reasonably ought to have known forms part of the proceeds of your unlawful activity and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18( a), 15 (2) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011, as amended, and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.”
