Judge orders engineer to defend himself if he fails to produce lawyer.

Justice S.S Ogunsanya of the Ikeja Division of the Lagos High Court Tuesday ordered an engineer, Kayode Adebanju, to prepare to defend himself if he fails to get a lawyer at a date adjourned for his trial.

Mr. Adebanju is being accused of issuing dud cheques to the tune of N31 million to Lukman Abuduni.

Counsel to the prosecution, T.A. Arabi, had earlier told the judge that no lawyer had announced appearance for the defendant in four previous court sittings.

“I pray this court that on the next adjourned date, if the defendant doesn’t have a lawyer to represent him, he will have no other option than to represent himself in court,” Mr. Arabi added.

The judge, mildly amused, noted that the prosecution lawyer at some point during previous proceedings had been absent in court.

But he told Mr. Adebanju he would defend himself on the next adjourned date.

“Registrar, tell the defendant that if he does not come to court on the next adjourned date, he will be defending this case by himself,” Judge Ogunsanya added.

In the suit, Mr. Abuduni had, sometime in November 2012, supplied Mr. Adebanju iron rods totalling N89 million out of which the latter allegedly paid N28 million.

“After a long wait in futility for the completion of the money, I made a primary investigation in the site which revealed that the engineer had collected the money,” Mr. Lukman said

“When I asked him for the completion of the money he issued me three cheques totaling N31 million. When I found out that the cheques were dud cheques, I used them as evidence to petition him at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.”

The judge adjourned the case April 10 for trial.