Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Lawal Pedro (SAN), has refuted the claim by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that while in private practice, he was responsible for several adjournments in the trial of an American, Marco Ramirez, who was convicted last week in Lagos for a $1.2 million EB-5 visa scam.
Ramirez, an American businessman, was sentenced to 68 years in prison by a Lagos High Court along with his companies, USA NOW LLC, Eagle Ford Group LP and USA Now Energy Capital Group LP, for defrauding some Nigerians through the Employment-Based Fifth Preference (EB-5) U.S. Investor Programme.
Following his re-arraignment, Ramirez engaged the services of Pedro, who handled his defence until 2023 when he was appointed as Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice.
In a statement by the EFCC after Ramirez’s conviction last week, the Commission claimed that Ramirez’s trial “suffered several adjournments occasioned by Pedro, and the inability of the defence to file its own final written addresses in good time, even after the prosecution counsel, M.S. Owede and S.O. Daji, had filed theirs.”
But reacting to the statement, Pedro, in an interview with some journalists, denied the allegation and claimed that the record of the court shows that he concluded the trial diligently.
He said: “Yes, the report was brought to my attention by my son who is also in legal practice and wondered why I made the case suffer several adjournments as reported, despite my frequent admonition of counsel to avoid delay of cases.
“I have read the report and it is mischievous. It is in respect of the judgment, which is in favour of the EFCC. The report is a one-sided story of the case as usual. But giving wrong and misleading reports to disparage me is most unfortunate, disappointing and least expected from the Commission.
“It is on record that after I was appointed Attorney-General & Commissioner for Justice in September 2023, I ceased to represent the defendant and another counsel, David Odde of Seagate Partners, took over the defence.
“The counsel appeared several times in the matter and I was reliably informed that he appeared on the day of the judgment. My question is: why is his name not mentioned in the report but mine?”
He said that the EFCC did not include in its report the defendant’s defence in court, backed with documents showing that he had approval and licence of the U.S. Home Office to process the visa on behalf of applicants the time money was collected from the complainants.
According to him, the report was an attempt to mislead the public and cast aspersions on his person.