A new twist was yesterday introduced in the trial of the Kwara State chairman of Action Congress (AC) Prince Sunday Fagbemi and the secretary, Alhaji Bolaji Edun as the case file was allegedly withdrawn from a High Court judge.

The legal team assembled to handle the defence for the politicians at the High Court were miffed when they got to court only to learn that the Chief Judge, Justice Saka Yusuf, had allegedly withdrawn the case file from Justice Banji Orilonise whom, they claimed had scheduled the hearing of an application for bail for the accused to today.

Last week, Chief Magistrate Tahooed Umar had refused the application for bail by the accused as he said that the alleged offences levied against them were grievous and that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain them.

He had fixed today for the case to be mentioned although lawyers said it might be for the purpose of terminating the case at the Magistrate level since it had been assigned to the High Court.

The defence team was further worried by the latest development following insinuations that the Chief Judge is set to retire by the end of this week. This information could not be confirmed by Press time.

They expressed concern that the outgoing Chief Judge might decide to leave the cause list to his successor or whoever is left behind to act in that capacity until a new appointment is made.

Scores of AC leaders and supporters were in court premises yesterday. On hearing news of the twist, they expressed dismay, alleging that the development was a political move to further punish the accused.

Security around them was tight although their escorts allowed relatives to see and confer with them inside one of the courtrooms. Journalists were, however, not allowed inside.

After waiting for about an hour and brainstorming among themselves, one of the lawyers confided in The Nation that they had decided to meet with the Chief Judge in his chamber to see how they could persuade him to assign a new judge to hear the application for bail while he may decide to take his time in determining who he chooses to hear the substantive suit.

The lawyer said: "We are more interested in the bail application and we want to see how he would handle it, we are not bothered about what he does now with the real issue."

The AC leaders had been accused of an attempt to bomb the residence of the state’s electoral commissioner and a filling station owned by a government official prior to the Presidential and National Assembly elections.

The duo however denied the charges and told the court that they were framed up by State Security Services (SSS) under whose detention they had been since April 20, 2007.