The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has again arrested the Ex- Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode over alleged document falsification.
It was reported that he was arrested on Tuesday when he attended a court proceeding at the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos.
According to some sources close to him, they said he was not arrested but re-invited by the anti-graft agency.
However, 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.
They were arraigned before Justice Mohammed Aikawa.
All defendants were present at the court when the case was mentioned.
However, the prosecution, Rotimi Oyedepo did not oppose the letter of the first defence counsel who was absent.
Oyedepo 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.
A drama however unfolded after the case was adjourned until January 24, 2022 and the defendants stepped out of court.
While Fani-Kayode was still at the corridor of the court, an EFCC investigator, Mr. Shehu Shuaibu walked up to him alongside the prosecutor and after some confidential discussions, the defendant entered his vehicle and followed the EFCC operatives to their office.
The operative who confirmed the arrest to journalists, said that Fani-Kayode was 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.
However, the former Minister via a Facebook post denied being arrested, stating that he was only invited and was later “granted bail on self-recognition”.
