Justice Muhammed Umar of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has issued a bench warrant for the arrest of the controversial self-acclaimed Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) Adeniyi Adeyemi, after he failed to show up for his scheduled arraignment.
Channels TV reported that Justice Umar granted the arrest application based on the oral application of the police lawyer, Wisdom Madaki.
Adeyemi was scheduled to enter a plea to an eight-count charge of forgery, fraud and impersonation.
But, as No. 12 on the court’s cause list, the defendant did not show up for his arraignment, although he had a lawyer, Genesis Francis, who announced his appearance for him.
Shortly after the case was called, the prosecution counsel saw that the defendant had on several occasions neglected to attend his trial.
“This is the fifth time this case is coming up and all the adjournments have been at the instance of the defendant,” the police lawyer bemoaned.
“The prosecution counsel therefore prayed the court to issue a warrant of arrest against him pursuant to Section 394 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015.
Immediately after the application, the defence lawyer objected, saying his client had not attended court due to purported threats to his life.
The defence lawyer told the court that his client came to court for his arraignment on May 16, a date he said the matter was later deferred to.
After hearing to both counsel, Justice Umar stated he was minded to grant the application for the issuing of a warrant of arrest against the defendant.
The court noticed that the case was filed on November 27, 2025, however the proceedings did not start until December 4, 2025.
Justice Umar said the defendant had come before the court once since the charge was filed.
“He has not appeared before this court on four successive dates since then,” Justice Umar said.
Justice Mohammed Umar had thus ordered a warrant of arrest to be issued against the defendant to security forces for his arrest and production before the court on September 30 for arraignment.
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