Nyako
The Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Friday, April 22, 2016 presented
its fifth witness in the ongoing trial of a former governor of Adamawa
State, Murtala Nyako, his son, Senator Abdul-Aziz Nyako, Abubakar Aliyu
and Zulkifikk Abba.
Nyako and the others are standing trial before Justice E.
Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja in a 37-count charge bordering
on criminal conspiracy, stealing, abuse of office and money laundering
to the tune of N29 billion preferred against them by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
They are alleged
to have at various times between 2011 and 2013, used five companies –
Blue Opal Nigeria limited, Serore Farms & Extension Limited, Pagoda
Fortunes Limited, Towers Assets Management Limited and Crust Energy
Limited to commit the fraud.
The prosecution
through its counsel, Adebisi Adeniyi and Leke Atolagbe, sought to
present more exhibits against the defendants through the witness,
Celestine Idiaye, Cluster Control Manager, Internal Control Unit, of
Diamond Bank, Garki branch, Abuja.
Idiaye, who was
led in evidence by Atolagbe, told the court that the bank received a
letter from the EFCC dated September 23, 2014 requesting for account
opening documents and statement of account in respect of Sentinel
Exploration and Production Limited, a company linked to Nyako.
“We responded
with a letter dated September 30, 2014 and provided two statements of
account, account opening documents and certificate of identification,”
he said.
He added that at
the time of producing the said documents, the bank’s computer systems
“were in perfect condition and we compared them with what we have in our
database and they were the same”.
The forwarding
letter from the bank to which was attached the various documents, were
presented in court, and were identified by Idiaye as the documents from
Diamond Bank forwarded to the EFCC.
However, Y. C. Maikyau, SAN, counsel to Abubakar Aliyu,
questioned the admissibility of the documents by the court. He told the
court that while he had “no objection to the forwarding letter, the
documents attached, which include photocopies were by their nature
public documents that needed to be certified by the public officer who
has custody of the original copies”. He argued that the photocopy of the
international passport in the document ought to have been certified by
an official of the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, and the photocopy
of the certificate of incorporation of the company ought to have been
certified by an official of the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC.
“The requirements for certifying a pubic document according
to Section 104 of the Evidence Act 2011 was not met as it relates to
the cited documents,” Maikyau argued.
Ibrahim Isiyaku,
SAN, counsel to the fourth and eight defendants, Olumide Olujimi,
counsel to the fifth defendant, and O. A. Dada, counsel to the ninth
defendant, all aligned themselves with the argument of Maikyau.
Responding, Adeniyi, argued that the points canvassed by
the defence team was misplaced. “The position of the law is that
documents attached to the letter, which has not been opposed to by the
defence, must be admitted as a whole,” he said.
According to
Adeniyi, “what we sought to tender through the witness was the letter
sent to the EFCC from Diamond Bank, which has not been opposed to by the
defence”.
He added that: “What we have before your lordship is a
statement of account and we’re not in an era of ledger, and a statement
of account is in its original form that was printed from the computer
server.”
He, therefore,
urged the court to “discountenance the objection and reject the attempt
to sever the attached documents from the letter, which ought to be
admitted as a whole”.
After listening
to all the arguments, Justice Chukwu, thereafter adjourned till May 6,
2016 for ruling on the admissibility of the documents and continuation
of trial.
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