Court grants Adoke permission to travel abroad

A Federal High Court in Abuja has granted permission to former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke to travel for a medical checkup in the United Arab Emirate (UAE).

In a ruling on Friday, Justice Inyang Ekwo, discountenanced the objection raised by a lawyer to the prosecution, Bala Sanga, and granted Adoke’s application as argued by another former AGF, Kanu Agabi (SAN).

Justice Ekwo said the issue of whether or not to grant such an application was within the court’s discretion, which he was inclined to exercise in favour of the applicant because he claimed to be travelling on medical grounds.

The judge proceeded to order the release of the ex-AGF’s international passport to enable him to travel from December 15 this year and return on January 10, a day before the scheduled resumption of trial in the money laundering charge involving him and a businessman, Aliyu Abubakar.

He ordered Adoke to return the international passport to the court with two days of his return for the foreign trip.

Adoke and Abubakar are being tried by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a 14-count charge of money laundering, which is scheduled to resume on January 11 next year.

According to a document filed in court, Adoke is scheduled to undergo diagnosis. for “back pain, gastric ulcer, glaucoma, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, short-sightedness, urinary tract infection, vitamin D deficiency and dry eye syndrome, bilateral.”

Agabi had while moving his client’s application, assured the court the Adoke would return to face his trial if granted permission to travel.

He urged the court to consider Adoke’s status as a former AGF and the fact that he was being represented in the case by a senior lawyer.

“We believe he will come back. He cannot run away. A defendant who runs away has convicted himself. He (such a defendant) has simplified the work of the prosecution by running away,” Agabi said.

In his counter-affidavit, Sanga drew the court’s attention that Adoke had avoided being tried in respect of the many cases pending against him until he was forcefully brought back to Nigeria with the assistance of foreign security agencies.

The prosecuting lawyer noted that Adoke was arrested on November 11, 2019, in Dubai by the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL) and handed to the EFCC in Nigeria on December 19, 2019.

He argued that Adoke has not shown that he was actually ill and that his ailment could not be attended to by Nigerian physicians in the country.

While expressing doubt about Adoke’s sincerity and the likelihood that he could jump bail, Sanga noted that a charge was pending against him before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in respect of his complicity in the controversial Malabu Oil settlement deal involving about $1.092billion.