Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Special Offences Court in Lagos has turned down the bid to stop the hearing of the corruption allegations against the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.
Giving his ruling on Wednesday, Oshodi dismissed Emefiele’s request to recuse himself from the trial, noting that the allegations of bias against him were unsubstantiated.
According to the court, judicial bias is insufficient to justify disqualification or recusal. It also added that it must be personal or based on some judicial reasoning.
Subsequently, Justice Oshodi stated that the application for his recusal lacked merit and refused the request.
The ruling comes after Emefiele, via his lead counsel, Olalekan Ojo (SAN), requested that Justice Oshodi step down from the proceedings during the last sitting on Monday.
Ojo argued that by allowing the prosecution to ask a leading question that the defence had previously objected to, the judge had made it impossible for the defence to fairly cross-examine the witness.
SUN NEWS
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