A former Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Fidet Edetanle, has urged the Lagos State Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja to strike out the criminal charges filed against him, describing the case as an abuse of court process.
Edetanle is facing prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over an alleged fraud involving $385,000 and ₦165,438,000. The former railway boss was arraigned before Justice Rahman Oshodi on February 24, 2026, on a seven-count charge bordering on alleged abuse of office, money laundering and unlawful enrichment by a public official. He had pleaded not guilty to all the counts.
At the resumed hearing yesterday, the defendant told the court of his application dated May 12, 2026, seeking to quash the charge. The lead defence counsel, Adebowale Kamoru, told the court the prosecution amounted to an abuse of court process because the issues raised in the instant charge had already been the subject of a final forfeiture order granted by a Federal High Court in Abuja.
According to him, the EFCC, which instituted both the Abuja forfeiture proceedings and the current criminal charge, relied on the same alleged offences, assets and bank accounts in both cases. “The complainant in the Abuja suit is the same complainant in this charge, and the owner of the funds said to be proceeds of crime, which were subjects of the forfeiture order in the Abuja suit, is the same defendant in this charge.”
He further submitted that the bank accounts investigated by the EFCC and affected by the forfeiture order are the same accounts forming the basis of the current criminal trial. The lawyer also contended that both matters arose from the same investigation conducted by the anti-graft agency and were premised on the same alleged unlawful activities.
Kamoru maintained that the findings and consequences arising from the current charge had effectively been determined in the Abuja proceedings, which culminated in the forfeiture order granted on March 9, 2026.
However, counsel for the EFCC, Abass Muhammed, opposed the application and urged the court to dismiss it for lacking merit. Muhammed argued that the forfeiture proceedings conducted by the EFCC were non-conviction-based and civil in nature, in line with Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006. According to him, the forfeiture action was directed at assets and funds reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime, and not against the defendant personally.
“The forfeiture proceedings are not in any way a finding of guilt against the defendant. The instant criminal charge is against him personally.” He further submitted that a civil forfeiture proceeding, being an action in rem, can either precede or coexist with a criminal prosecution without constituting an abuse of court process, even where both matters relate to the same assets.
Following arguments from both parties, Justice Oshodi adjourned the matter to July 3, 2026 for ruling on the defendant’s application.
