Daily Times: Lagos says Anosikes may be re-arraigned

The trial of the Anosike brothers, Fidelis and Noel, for allegedly stealing properties of Daily Times of Nigeria worth N1.7bn may not have ended even with the dismissal of the charge against them by a Lagos High Court in Ikeja on Monday.

Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye, whose office took over the case from the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, in March 2012, said this on Tuesday.

Ipaye told our correspondent in an e-mail interview on Tuesday that the fact that the court struck out the case did not necessarily mean its end.

He said he would not hesitate to re-file the case if further investigation being conducted by the police on the case yielded concrete evidence.

Justice Habeeb Abiru on Monday struck out the suit on the grounds of poor prosecution of the case by the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecution.

In dismissing the suit, Abiru frowned at the prosecution, acceding to the request of the defence counsel that the case be struck out after the prosecution sought an adjournment for two weeks to further study the case.

The judge had also said the prosecution could re-file the case whenever they were ready to prosecute.

Ipaye said, “The counsel did the only thing she could do. In any case, the striking out does not necessarily extinguish the possibility of prosecution. If we get adequate evidence we shall not hesitate to re-file the action. In the meantime, we have to wait for the police to conduct further investigation and fill some gaps in the investigation report.”

Ipaye said his office had just finished the review of the investigation report handed over to it and found out that there was the need for further investigation because of several gaps in the report.

“We have just drawn that conclusion and written a report for the IGP. If we get adequate evidence we shall not hesitate to re-file the action. In the meantime, we have to wait for the police to conduct further investigation and fill some gaps in the investigation report,” he said.

Ipaye further said the state had taken over the case because it was the duty of the Attorney-General of a state to prosecute state offences.

The Anosikes were charged along with their company, Folio Communications, with which they were alleged to have fraudulently procured Daily Times from the Federal Government on March 14, 2007.