The trial of a former governor of Oyo State, Adebayo Alao-Akala, and two others for alleged N11.5billion fraud was on Friday stalled, due to the absence of the prosecution witnesses. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is prosecuting Alao-Akala; ex-Commissioner for Local Governments, Hosea Agboola; and a businessman, Femi Babalola.
Justice Olalekan Owolabi of the Oyo State High Court had on January 16 issued witness summons to an official of the EFCC, Muhammed Goji and six others. Others summoned by the court are officials from the Oyo State Ministry of Finance, Olutoyin Akanmu, Florence Oyebanji, Adebayo Bankole, Ademola Ojo, amongst others.
EFCC’s counsel, Benedict Ubi, told the court that he was only able to serve three out of the seven witnesses. He said one of the officials served could not appear because he had a case to attend to.
The counsel said that he did not receive any response from the two others who are officials of the Oyo State Ministry of Finance and Local Government and Chieftaincy matters served with the summons.
