For the second time within the last two weeks, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has quizzed a former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode over alleged forgery.
Fanikayode was re-arrested on Tuesday after he attended a court proceeding at the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos following investigations into alleged document falsification.
He, however, denied that he was arrested but re-invited by the anti-graft agency.
The EFCC is charging Fani-Kayode alongside a former Minister of State for Finance, Nenandi Usman and also Yusuf Danjuma, a former Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) and a company, Jointrust Dimensions Nigeria Ltd on 17 counts of laundering N4.6 billion naira which is said to have contravened the provisions of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act, 2012.
When the case was mentioned at the court on Tuesday, all defendants were present.
However, the prosecution, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo did not oppose the letter of the first defence counsel who was absent.
He rather informed the court that the prosecution was glad that the court had figured out from its record that the second defendant (Fani Kayode) had sought repeated excuses from the court.
He told the court that the prosecution had recently discovered that all letters sent by Fani-Kayode were fake.
At this point, the court stopped the prosecutor on the grounds that it was a matter the agency ought to trash out before the court acted on the letters to grant an adjournment.
Subsequently, drama unfolded after the case was adjourned until January 24, 2022, and the defendants stepped out of court.
While Fani-Kayode was still in the corridor of the court, an EFCC investigator, Mr. Shehu Shuaibu walked up to him alongside the prosecutor and after a brief chat, the defendant entered his vehicle and followed the EFCC operatives to their office.
An operative, who confirmed at the time of filing this report, says that Mr Fani-Kayode was re-arrested and is in their custody for questioning over the false documents.
In the charge, the defendants were alleged to have committed the offences between January and March 2015.
This comes just days after the anti-graft agency had arrested Fani Kayode. But the former Minister denied being arrested, stating that he was only invited and was later granted bail on self-recognition.
