The former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, has described the last twelve and a half years of his money laundering case with the EFCC as harrowing, saying he was persecuted based on wrongful allegations.
He also said that he suffered unnecessarily during the period the case lasted, stemming from a faceless petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
It will be recalled that the former Speaker was discharged and acquitted of the 54-count charge leveled against him by the EFCC at the Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday.
While sharing his experience at a media briefing in Ikeja, Ikuforiji vowed not to press any charges against the EFCC, adding that the judgment on June 24th was his day of independence.
He wondered how he was made to face the law for over a decade for a fabricated story that he collected N500 million over 14 months, totaling about N7 billion.
According to him, he received a call from the then EFCC Director of Operations, Mohammed, on his way to Umrah in Saudi Arabia, and he honored the request to report immediately upon his return to the country, which he did.
Ikuforiji noted that he spent the weekend on the floor of an EFCC cell in Abuja over a petition with no name, known address, or telephone number.
He disclosed that EFCC operatives later combed through the House of Assembly for months and examined all the papers without finding anything incriminating against him.
The former Speaker added that the EFCC later concluded that the books of the Assembly were clean among those they had investigated for years.
However, he noted that the only observation was that most of their transactions were done with physical cash, which was the practice in the system at the time.
The money laundering case, according to him, inspired him to study law at the University of Lagos, noting that the case could have had political or social undertones from anyone.
The former lawmaker noted that he never left politics during the twelve and a half years of his ordeal, except that he didn’t stand for election, which was not proper for anyone under investigation.
According to him, 2027 is in the hands of God since we are still in 2024, and no one can say who will be alive by then.
He said further, “I am a very happy man as my joy knows no bounds in the last 48 hours and extremely grateful to God Almighty for seeing me through the ordeal.”
The former number three man in Lagos disclosed that he didn’t tell family members he was going for judgment last week Monday because he didn’t know if he would be going to prison from there.
He said he led the most progressive Assembly under his leadership for ten years, as people came from far and near to learn from their wealth of experience.
He recalled that the National Assembly came several times to the Lagos Assembly, adding that they passed the Freedom of Information Bill first in the country and the Child Rights Act.
Ikuforiji said he prayed a year ahead of 2003 to win election into the Lagos State House of Assembly and also to emerge as Speaker in the long run, which God answered.
Rt. Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji was elected from Epe Constituency into the Lagos State House of Assembly in 2003, spent 12 years over three terms, and served 10 years as the Speaker.
