The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, ( EFCC) has
presented two witnesses to deny claims by the fourth accused
person, a former ALGON chairman, Alhaji Lawal Dankaba, that his
statements was obtained by the operatives under duress.
In an earlier sitting of the court, Dankaba had alleged that his
statement on the alleged N11billion fraud was obtained under duress
which made the court to order for a trial within trial over the
objection raised by the accused.
The two EFCC operatives, Abubakar Buba and Abu Fari Muhammad
while testifying on Wednesday, debunked claims by the accused
person that his statements were obtained under duress.
They added that the statements of the accused were obtained
freeely in the presence of his lawyers and other state ALGON
officials.
However, the presiding judge, Justice Maikaita Bako has fixed
January 23rd and 24th for continuation of the case.
In a related development, the Katsina State High Court has
terminated the trial of three former officials of the state
government charged with misappropriating over N5.7billion SURE-P
funds because the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister
of Justice, Abubakar Malami, failed to hand over the case file to
the prosecution.
The accused persons are a former special adviser to former
Katsina State governor, Ibrahim Shema, on SURE-P, Nasiru Ingawa;
the director of account and finance SURE-P department, Abdulaziz
Shinkafi; and chief store officer Katsina state civil service,
Bello Bindawa.
The court terminated the case and discharged the accused
persons, although the state government indicated interest to revive
the trial.
When the matter was called last Tuesday for hearing, Aminu
Ibrahim, the state government counsel said the state government can
not continue with the case as it was yet to possess the case file
and therefore appealed for an indefinite adjournment.
“My Lord, the case cannot go on today because we are still not
in possession of the case file. We have not been given the case
file by the ICPC,” Ibrahim said.
Adamu Yarima, Counsel to the accused persons however raised no
objection to the application by the prosecution counsel.
“My Lord, I leave the decision on the application of the
prosecution counsel to the discretion of the court,” he said.
Justice Maikaita Bako, the court Judge giving his ruling
asserted that, the appropriate order to make was to terminate the
charges and discharge the accused persons.
Mr Yarima, speaking shortly after the ruling to newsmen, blamed
the ICPC for the failure to release the case file to the state
government.
Ibrahim, the prosecution counsel, on his part, said what the
court ruling did only discharged them from the bail granted them by
the court, but never acquitted the accused persons.
“The ruling implies that, the state government may pursue the
case when it obtains the case file from the ICPC”, he
concluded.
The termination of the case may have confirmed the fears of the
ICPC when it initially objected to handing over the case.
The ICPC and the opposition in the state had raised concerns
that the move by the state government to take over the case was to
frustrate the trial.
The trial started in October last year, after the investigation
by the ICPC into the alleged financial crimes committed by the
officials of the state government in charge of SURE-P
Department.
But it could not proceed beyond the initial arraignment of the
accused persons, following the decision of the state government to
take over the prosecution from the ICPC.
Sure-P was a programme of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s
administration designed to re-invest government savings from fuel
subsidy removal on critical infrastructure projects and social
safety net programmes with direct impact on the citizens of
Nigeria.
In Katsina State, it is believed that not less than N5.7 billion
trickled into the state for key infrastructural projects since the
programme was established in 2012.
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