N40bn loan scam: Why Keyamo should not prosecute me – Bankole

FORMER Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, yesterday, adduced reasons why trial Justice Suleiman Belgore of an Abuja High Court sitting at Apo, should not allow counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr Festus Keyamo, to go ahead and prosecute either himself or his former deputy, Usman Nafada Bayero, over the alleged uncanny roles they played in a N40 billion loan scam.
Bankole who is answering to a 17-count criminal charge preferred against him and his erstwhile deputy, Nafada, by the EFCC, prayed the trial judge, yesterday, to disqualify the prosecuting counsel, Keyamo, from the matter forthwith, saying it was the only way the court could protect them from unnecessary persecution in the hands of the anti-graft body.
In a preliminary objection entered in court by his lead counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, Bankole, alleged that the EFCC lawyer ab_initio vowed to bring him down whilst he still presided over the proceedings of the House of Representatives, adding that the disaffection the prosecuting counsel had for him culminated to a petition that sought his probe in 2008.