Former Governor of Oyo State, Rashidi Ladoja, who was accused by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, of fraud to the tune of N4.7 billion, will be formally re-arraigned on December 14.

Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court Lagos gave the ruling on Friday after he struck out an application by Ladoja’s lawyer seeking for a stay of proceedings.

Ladoja was first arraigned alongside Waheed Akanbi, his former aide in 2008 but the accused persons challenged the competence of the charges filed against them all the way to the Supreme Court.

However, the Supreme Court on April 15, 2015 dismissed their appeal, describing it as incompetent pursuant to the provisions of Order 6 Rule 3(2) of the Supreme Court Rules 1999.

Following the dismissal of the appeal, the EFCC moved to re-open the case and to re-arraign Ladoja and Akanbi before Justice Idris.

The EFCC asked the court to order the arrest of the defendants but Justice Idris declined the application as both accused persons were present in court.

“The court will not make any order for arrest in the light of the appearance of the accused persons in court,” the judge held.

Ladoja’s lawyer, Bolaji Onilenla, also opposed the bid by the EFCC to re-arraign his client, saying that he had gone back to re-list the appeal at the Supreme Court.

He said he re-listed the appeal on October 27, 2016 on the grounds that the appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Court without hearing it.

“What we are saying in effect, My Lord, is that our right of appeal still endures and it cannot be purportedly cut short on the altar of overzealousness of the prosecution to jump-start the trial of the case,” he said.

But in his ruling, Justice Idris struck out the argument, saying that the request to stay proceedings pending the outcome of the re-listed appeal before the Supreme Court was against the provisions of Section 306 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.

He subsequently fixed December 14 for the arraignment of the defendants.