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The Federal High Court, Lagos, on
Monday, adjourned hearing till 28 October in the application filed by
Sebastian Adigwe, the former managing director of Afribank, to quash
the charge against him.

Mr. Adigwe was re-arrested by the
Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), on 21 April, with four
directors of the bank on a fresh 33-count charge of granting credit
facilities to the tune of N55 billion, without collaterals, after they
had earlier been arraigned and granted bail on a 36-count charge to the
tune of N38 billion in September 2009.

The directors are Osa Osunde, Isa
Zailani, Chinedu Onyia, and Henry Arogundade. Also joined in the suit
are Peter Ololo, the managing director of Falcon Securities, and his
company.

After spending five days in the custody
of the EFCC, the court in Lagos, on 26 April, granted bail to Mr.
Adigwe after EFCC had re-arraigned him and six others including the
chairman of the bank, Osa Osunde, over their alleged involvement.

The accused were said to have failed to
take all reasonable steps to ensure that the account books of Afribank
as at 31 May, 2009, gave a true and fair view of the state of affairs
of the bank as required by Sections 24 (1), 24 (2) of the Banks and
Other Financial Institutions Act. Cap. B3, Laws of the Federation, by
understating the loan portfolio of the bank.

More charges

Specifically, Mr. Adigwe was said to
have perpetrated shares scam by creating a misleading appearance of
active trading in the shares of Afribank on the Nigeria Stock Exchange
(NSE) and also by approving N2 billion credit facilities to Alsmiths
Nigeria Limited to purchase large volume of Afribank’s shares, an
offence contrary to Section 105 (1) (a) of the Investment and
Securities Act, 2007 and punishable under Section 115 (a) of the same
Act.

However, at the resumed hearing of the
case on Monday, counsel to the accused, Tony Idigbe (SAN), told the
court that an application had been filed to quash the charge,
contending that the proof of evidence did not link the accused with the
case.

Mr. Idigbe urged the court to order the
EFCC to release the international passports of the accused, stressing
“it is illegal for the EFCC to hold on to their passports.”

The prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs,
however, did not object to the release of the passports to the court,
but raised objections to the verification of the bail terms.

Justice Jonathan Tsoho ruled that the passports should be deposited with the court and adjourned the case till October 28.