Mr. Hassan ordered that the case file be returned to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Ibrahim Auta, for re-assignment to another judge. He directed Mr. Fani-Kayode and his co-defendants to await further directive from Mr. Auta.
The EFCC, according to Premium Times, had on June 28, 2016 arraigned Mr. Fani-Kayode; former minister of state for finance, Nenadi Usman; former national chairman of Association of Local Government of Nigeria, ALGON, Yusuf Danjuma, and a company, Jointrust Dimentions Nigeria Ltd. on a 17-count charge of fraud and money laundering.
The accused had pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Fani-Kayode had accused the judge of bias in the handling of the matter, stating that he wanted the judge to not only withdraw himself from the case but to transfer the matter to the Abuja division of the court.
Mr. Fani-Kayode through his counsel, Norrison Quakers, also said he was afraid of not getting justice if Mr. Hassan presided over the case on the grounds that Mr. Hassan once worked as a legal officer in the employment of the EFCC.
Mr. Fani-Kayode recalled that Mr. Hassan, then a senior counsel with the EFCC, was the officer who drafted, filed and signed a charge marked FHC/L/523c/2008, leading to his trial for alleged N100 million money laundering before Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia of the same federal court.
He said though the EFCC vigorously prosecuted the case, he was discharged and acquitted by Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia on July 1, 2015 after seven years of trial, a development, Mr. Hassan was not happy about, according to Mr. Fani-Kayode.
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