IKYEGH JCA (Delivering the Lead Judgment): The interlocutory appeal is against a bench rulingof the Federal High Court of Justice, sittingin Lagos (the court below), refusingthe appellant’s request to absent herself in court at the hearing of her motion to have the charge against her struck out or dismissed or in the alternative, to suspend or adjourn sine die all proceedings in the said charge pendingthe hearingand determination of an interrelated civil suit pending at the High Court of Justice of Lagos State. The synopsis of the case is that the appellant was at all material time , charged alongside one other accused at the court below with the offence of stealingN5,208,000,000.00(five billion,two hundred andeight million naira) belonging to Strand Capital Partners Limited, contrary to section 516 of the Criminal Code, Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004.
A preliminary objectionwas filed by the appellant through her learned senior counsel challenging inter alia , the …