The Supreme Court demanded from the law firm of Rotimi Jacobs and Co the fiat issued to it by the Attorney-General of the Federation to prosecute John YakubuYusufu, who was convicted for diverting N24bn.
Yusufu, a former Deputy Director in the Federal Civil Service Pension Office, who is currently serving his six-year sentence, had appealed to the Supreme Court to set aside the 2018 judgment of the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
During the mention of the case, Theodore Maiyaki announced appearance for the appellant.
When OluwalekeAtolagbe (from the firm of Rotimi Jacobs and Co) announced appearance for the respondent (the Federal Republic of Nigeria), a member of the five-justices panel of the Supreme Court, Justice CentusNweze sought to know if he (Atolagbe) was from the Office of the AGF.
Atolagbe says he was a private lawyer whose firm was instructed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to prosecute the case from the trial court.
Justice Nweze insisted that Atolagbe must present the fiat issued to the firm by the AGF before further steps could be taken in the case.
But in its bjudgment on March 21, 2018, the Appeal Court reversed the judgment of the High Court of the FCT and sentenced Yusufu to a cumulative six years imprisonment.
The appellate court then ordered him to refund N22.9bn to Federal Government, a decision he appealedat the Supreme Court.
Although the Appeal Court’s judgment was given in 2018, Yusufu remained a free man until June 2020 when the EFCC arrested him in Gombe State.
He was later taken before Justice Hussein Baba-Yusuf of the High Court of the FCT, who on June 22, 2020 ordered him to be sent to prison to serve his sentence.
