The trial of Abubakar Ali Peters and his company, Nadabo Energy Limited, in front of Justice Christopher Balogun of the Lagos High Court Ikeja, was again stalled on Monday, when the defendant’s counsel, Osagie Isiramen, told the court that the defense was not ready to continue with the cross-examination of the fifth prosecution witness, Abdulrasheed Bawa, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The EFCC has filed a 27-count indictment against Abubakar and his company for allegedly using fake documents to acquire N1,464,961,978.24 in oil subsidies from the Federal Government after inflating the quantity of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, purportedly imported and provided by the company.
The defense attorney began his cross-examination of the witness on December 20, 2021. At the January 25, 2022 sessions, he also cross-examined the witness.
On Monday’s sessions, Isiramen informed the Court that he would be unable to continue cross-examination.
He claimed that the defense had yet to get a Certified True Copy (CTC) of the court’s records of proceedings, which prevented him from continuing with the cross-examination.
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He stated, “We are not prepared to continue.”
“We requested a certified copy of the proceedings, but we have yet to receive it,” he said.
The Judge, surprised by the defense counsel’s claim, noted that the proceedings records had already been prepared and that no certification was required because they were only needed for cross-examination of the witness.
Instead of asking for a certified true copy, the Judge pointed out that because the court’s file was a public record, the defense could have readily sought it from the court’s registrar and read it for cross-examination.
“The file is always there, and the records have already been printed off,” the judge remarked.
“What the hell is going on here?” Is it not appropriate to use it during the witness’s cross-examination?”
Concerned about the lawsuit’s incapacity to proceed, the Judge highlighted that previous cases have to be vacated in order for the case to proceed.
“I didn’t want to disrupt the proceedings, and I’m not happy with what’s going on here.”
“You don’t stall proceedings with something like this,” the judge added.
“I shall yield to the defendant’s counsel’s plea to proceed with the cross-examination of the prosecution’s witness for the last time,” the Judge said as he adjourned the case till March 29, 30, and 31, 2022.
“The already printed record of proceedings should be given over to the defense counsel for cross-examination.”
“On or about the 3rd day of April 2012 at Lagos, within the Lagos Judicial Division, Nadabo Energy Limited and Abubakar Ali Peters, with intent to defraud, fraudulently obtained the sum of N978,401,732.09 (Nine Hundred and Seventy-eight Million Four Hundred and One Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty-two Naira Nine Kobo) from the Federal Government of Nigeria by falsely claiming that the sum represented subsidy accrued
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“Nadabo Energy Limited and Abubakar Ali Peters, on or about the 25th day of October 2011 at Lagos, within the Lagos Judicial Division, with intent to defraud and in order to facilitate your obtaining money by false pretense from the Federal Government of Nigeria under the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF), forged a document titled: Certificate of Marine Insurance no. 0047851 and purported the Marine Insurance certificate to have been issued by Staco Insura,” according to another count.
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