Lawyer walksout on ex-JAMB Registrar in court over N5.2B Fraud

The commencement of trial of former Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Adedibu Ojerinde could not hold on Wednesday following the withdrawal of his lawyer, Peter Olorunishola from the case.

Ojerinde

When the matter was called in court, the prosecuting counsel, Ebenezer Shogunle said he has three witnesses.

The Defence lawyer, Itieubong Usoroh said a letter of withdrawal has been written to the court and they needed time to address some issues surrounding the payment of his professional fees.

Usoroh therefore applied for a short adjournment to enable them resolve the prerequisites for his formal withdrawal.

The prosecution counsel, Shogunle did not oppose the application that the defendant is entitle to a lawyer of his choice, but argued that such entitlement should not be exploited to delay the trial.

He urged the court to be guided by the provision of Section 393 sun section 3 of Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) in granting a short adjournment.

In a ruling, Justice Obiora Egwuatu granted the request of the defendants lawyer and adjourned the trial to October 8, 2021.

Ojerinde was arraigned by the Independent Corrupt Practices & other related offences Commission (ICPC) on July 6 on an 18-count charge, in which he was accused among others, of diversion of over N5.2billion public funds, when he served as the Registrar of the National Examination Council (NECO).