The trial of Azibaola Robert and his wife, Stella, could not proceed on Monday, January 30, as planned due to the inability of the prosecution council to produce witnesses to prove its case against the defendants, who were in court.
Robert and his wife are answering to a seven-count charge the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, preferred against them before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
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They are facing trial over alleged $40million contract fraud, Vanguard reports.
At the resumed hearing of the case at the Federal High Court Abuja, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission lawyer, Sylvanus Tahir, joined by another, told the judge that he regretted his inability to produce the witnesses he had lined up to testify against the defendants and pleaded with the court to adjourn the matter to March 13 and 14.
Mr. Tahir told the court that he would be able to assemble his witnesses and conclude his evidence in chief within those two days and rest his case. He told the court that he had secured the consent of the counsel for the defense before making the application.
Raising no objection, the defense led by Chief Chris Uche, SAN, with his younger brother, Gordy Uche (SAN), and 15 others, said they would not oppose the adjournment as requested by the prosecution based on the ‘long standing traditions of the court.’
Justice Dimgba while ruling, granted the request of the EFCC, and said that he was satisfied with the progress the case had made so far and sought the cooperation of the parties to expedite action to bring the matter to a conclusive end in the interest of justice.
It will be recalled that Azibaola Robert, a former Human Rights Activist, a lawyer and cousin to President Goodluck Jonathan, was arrested on the 23rd of March and arraigned before Justice Dimgba of the Federal High Court after spending over 90 days in EFCC custody.
However, since the case began, the EFCC has so far called four prosecution witnesses, who have all denied knowing Azibaola Robert and his wife, Stella, or having anything to do with their company, Oneplus Holdings Nig. Ltd.
One of them, Ibrahim Mahe, a retired Permanent Secretary in the former NSA’s office and EFCC’s star witness had told the court on 28 June 2016 that the funds to which the accused were being prosecuted were duly approved, and that only the former NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki could say otherwise.
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Mahe’s testimony corroborated with the defendants’ claim that the said money was sourced from the accounts of NNPC and paid to Robert to help achieve peace in the troubled Niger Delta and improve oil output at the time.
Again, one Boladode Faremo, a Compliance Officer with Zenith Bank in his evidence in chief told the court that Azibaola Robert and his wife were high net value customers of the bank and that the inflow of $40m into their account was inconsequential considering their worth. He stated that no query had been issued against the defendants in respect of their transactions with the bank.
His testimony was followed by two others which included one Samuel Babatunde Adeniyi on July 7, 10, 2016. Adetunji who was alleged to have received the sum of N640m from Dasuki said that he had never met, spoken or seen the accused persons and that he had refunded to the EFCC account the money for which the defendant is being prosecuted.
The EFCC counsel, Mr. Tahir labored in vain to re-examine his witness, but the defense lawyer, Chris Uche (SAN) vehemently opposed it.
The court then ruled that in the absence of any contrary evidence, In the eyes of the court, the money was paid to the prosecution witness, Adetunji, and he simply returned the money to the government.
At the close of today’s proceedings, Mr. Tahir hinted that he would be calling the investigating officers of the case on the next adjourned dates.
360naze
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