Ikeja – Power outage at the premises of the Ikeja High Court on Thursday stalled the hearing of an application filed by the Chairman of Bi-Courtney Ltd, Wale Babalakin.

Babalakin, in the application, filed before Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo, had asked the court to dismiss the N4.7 billion fraud charge preferred against him and four others.

However, the application could not be heard on Thursday, as scheduled, due to the outage which affected some courtrooms within the complex.

Dr Wale Babalakin

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had charged Babalakin and the other defendants to court.

They are facing a 27-count charge of conspiracy, retention of proceeds of a criminal conduct and corruptly conferring benefit on account of public action.

His co-defendants are Alex Okoh, Stabilini Visioni Ltd, Bi-Courtney Ltd. and Renix Nigeria Ltd.

The co-defenders had also filed similar applications, challenging the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the charge,

They had also challenged the competency of the charge, arguing that the EFCC lacked the power to prosecute them before a state high court, without a valid fiat.