– Evidence of Corruption Tendered Against EL-Rufai
FORMER Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, and his deputy, Usman Nafada, are deliberately working to delay proceedings in their ongoing trial by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commmission (EFCC).
The charge was made on Wednesday by the financial crimes agency, before an Abuja High Court, after the defense made an application to submit that the accused don’t have a case to answer.
Mr. Bankole and Mr. Nafada were arraigned on Monday, June 13, 2011, on a 17-count charge of criminal breach of trust, misappropriation and theft, and they were both expected to enter into defense today.
But at Wednesday’s resumed hearing of the case, Oyetibo pleaded for time, prompting the prosecution counsel, Festus Keyamo, to charge that an attempt was being made to further delay the trial of the case.
Presiding judge, Justice Suleiman Belgore, had promised to conclude the case this year.
Justice Belgore told the defense team to file their written addresses on the no-case-submission and the prosecution to reply before the next adjourned date of January 16, 2012.
Also on Wednesday, the EFCC tendered three new pieces of evidence against former Federal Capital Territory minister, Nasir el-Rufai. Wilson Uwajaren, the acting Head of Media and Publicity at the agency, told journalists that three documents were tendered as exhibits in the prosecution of the former minister and two others.
The two other accused persons arraigned with El-Rufai before a High Court of the FCT, presided over by Justice Sadiq Abubakar Umar, are former Director-General, Abuja Geographic Information System, AGIS, Altine Jubrin and former General Manager, AGIS, Ismail Iro.
At the hearing of the case, the prosecution presented the first witness, Engr. Mohammed Sani Alhassan, a former Executive Secretary in Engineering Department of the Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDA. Led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Adebayo Adelodun, SAN, Alhassan told the court that he had advised El-Rufai against diverting the plot of land allocated to Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) other than the purpose for which it was allocated, “but the former Minister ignored my advice.”
El-Rufai was made to understand that converting the plot to another use instead of what it was meant for is a distortion that will adversely affect the bulk of power supply and distribution to the city.
Earlier, Messrs Akin Olujinmi (SAN) and Kanu Agabi (SAN), counsel to the accused persons, had separately asked the court through applications brought on May 12th and June 23rd respectively to quash the case against their clients, saying that the offences being alleged were not disclosed in the proof of evidence and that it was an abuse of court processes to have duplicated their charges. They submitted that the court needed to safeguard the accused persons from harassment and public embarrassment.
They also contended that because the office of a minister was not described as a public servant, but was distinctively described in the constitution, no charge against the first accused person should be sustained.