Three leaders of the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), including the immediate past President of the General Executive Council of the church, Pastor Elijah Olusheye, will on July 9 know their fate on the no-case submission they filed in a forgery case instituted against them by the Federal Government.
Others standing trial with Olusheye at a Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan are Pastor Gideon Okegwemeh, the General Secretary of the church; Pastor Ayo Olabisi, Oyo State Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and a senior officer of the Corporate Affairs Commission, Mr. Abdul Hammed Mohammed.
At the resumed hearing of the case, counsel to the accused persons, Barrister Olugbenga Olatunji, urged the court to uphold the application for no-case submission and discharge his counsel. But counsel to the prosecution, Barrister Kareem Salawu, urged the court to dismiss the accused persons' application for lack of merit.
He said the accused persons had no application before the court, stating, "the accused persons' application for no-case submission was based on the old charge which had been withdrawn and substituted by the new charge.
"So my lord, the accused persons' application for no-case submission currently before the court is baseless , nullity and should be dismissed with immediate effect." The presiding judge, Justice Abimbola Adejumo-Obaseki then reserved ruling on the application till July 9th,2013.
It will be recalled that during the last adjourned date, the first prosecution witness, Pastor Moses Ayantoye, while being led in evidence by the prosecutor, Salawu, told the court that the litigation filed by the prosecution against the accused persons in 2002 was struck out due to fake medical report presented by the accused persons through their counsel.
He told the court that the suit FAC/IB/ CR/35/2002 was struck out by the trial judge when the then seven accused persons, including present fouth accused, secured a fake medical report that they were sick, admitted to the same hospital the same date when in actual fact they were not living in the same town.
He declared that the accused persons presented 45 fake medical reports which were signed by Dr. S.O. Ola and Dr. J.K. Fagbo, a member of CAC General Executive Council through their counsel at different court sittings, which eventually led to the striking out of the case.
