Justice Olayinka Faji of Federal High Court, Enugu, today granted Mr. Adetunji Oyeyipo (SAN), counsel
to Mr. Lucky Igbinedion, former Edo governor, 21 days to prepare his
defence. Olayinka gave the order while ruling on an application for time, filed by Oyeyipo, to file defence to the charges against Igbinedion. The judge said this was to enable the counsel to make up the time lost in the bid to secure bail for the
accused and in the interest of fair hearing. Oyeyipo had asked for 30 days to enable him to prepare the defence. "Four volumes of documents had been served on us by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission''s (EFCC) counsel. ''''Given the serious nature of the case, we need more time to prepare our defence and assemble our evidences,'''' he said. Oyeyipo said this was necessary since counsel did not have full access to the accused when he was in EFCC custody to discuss certain private issues with him. "Accelerated hearing should not be sacrificed at the altar of defence," he said. Mr. Rotimi Jacob, counsel to EFCC opposed Oyeyipo request for 30 days, saying such would amount to a lack of seriousness and delay of justice. He, urged the court to grant Oyeyipo 10 days to prepare his defence in respect of the time lost.