The Federal High Court in Lagos has granted permission to former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, to travel abroad for further medical treatment.
It is not the first time the court is allowing Fayose to travel abroad for treatment. The court had granted a similar application in Dec 2020.
The present application dated February 5, 2021, was filed on behalf of the former governor by his counsel, Ola Olanipekun (SAN) and moved today in court by another defence counsel, Sunday Olowolafe.
Through the counsel, Fayose sought an order of the court granting him leave “to travel outside Nigeria for further medical examination, diagnosis, treatment and therapeutics, as an exigency of his health demands, on dates which shall not coincide with or obstruct any date of the trial in this case.”
He also sought an order that his international passport, which was deposited with the Registrar of the Court as part of the conditions for the bail granted should be released to him and returned to the court upon return from the trip.
The counsel said that Fayose had religiously complied with all the terms and conditions upon which bail was granted including depositing his International Passport with the Registrar of the Court.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC did not oppose the application.
In granting the application, Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke insisted that Fayose must be in court on the next adjourned dates of March 18 & 19 for the continuation of his trial.
Fayose is standing trial for alleged ₦2.2 billion fraud.
He was first arraigned on October 22, 2018, on 11 counts before Justice Mojisola Olatotegun.
He was arraigned alongside his company, Spotless Investment Ltd.
Following a petition from the EFCC alleging bias on the part of the judge, the former governor was re-arraigned before Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke on July 2, 2019.
In the charge, the EFCC alleged, among other things, that Fayose, on June 17, 2014, “took possession of the sum of ₦1, 219, 000,000 to fund your 2014 gubernatorial campaign in Ekiti State, which you reasonably ought to have known formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful act, to wit: criminal breach of trust/stealing.”
The former governor was also alleged to have on the same day “received a cash payment of $5,000,000 from Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, the then Minister of State for Defence, which sum exceeded the amount authorised by law and you thereby committed an offence contrary to sections 1 and 16(d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended) and punishable under Section 16 (2)(b) of the same Act.”
The EFCC also alleged that Fayose purchased a property known as No.44, Osun Crescent, Maitama, Abuja for N200m in the name of “your elder sister, Mrs Moji Oladeji.”
But Fayose and Spotless Investment Limited pleaded not guilty to the charge.