It was a hot legal tussle yesterday at the Federal High Court, Ibadan division during the on-going trial of some staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria and others over alleged stealing of N8 billion mutilated currency notes as the Prosecution, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) expressed concern over delay and allegations of bias which some defence counsel made against the trial judge, Justice Ayo Nathaniel Emmanuel saying the moves were meant to scuttle the trial.

According to the counsel who is representing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission at the trial, the open allegation of bias against the judge by defence counsel is worrisome and unbecoming of a legal practitioner who is an officer of the court.

The defence counsel, Mr. Olalekan Ojo, who has already filed a notice of appeal against the earlier ruling on bail applications by his clients had taken exception to the ruling saying it had convicted his clients even before the commencement of trial. Two other counsel to the accused persons also aligned themselves with the position of Ojo asking the judge to disqualify himself from handling the case.

At the sitting yesterday, the defendants were docked in three batches. What applied in batch A was also similar to the other two batches. Defence counsel did not file all relevant processes before the court. The accused that were brought into the court room include Kolawole Babalola, Toogun Kayode Phillips, Olaniran Muniru Adeola, Salami Ibrahim and others.

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