Court rules Dec 14 on N15b fraud charges against Nyako

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(Nigeria) A Federal High Court, Abuja has fixed December 14 for ruling on whether or not to admit a bank statement allegedly indicting former Adamawa Governor, Murtala Nyako, of diverting monies belonging to the State.
The EFCC is prosecuting the former governor and three others on a 37-count charge bordering on corruption and laundering of N15 billion belonging to the state.
The defendants had pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Justice Evoh Chukwu, fixed the date after the counsel to the defence and the prosecution made exhaustive arguments on the admissibility of the document.
Prosecution counsel, Mr Rotimi Jacobs SAN had sought to tender the bank document which were allegedly used to launder N15 billion to the accounts of some private companies.
The companies according to him are, Blue Opal Nigeria Limited, Crust Energy Nigeria Limited, Blue Ribbon Multilinks Limited, Tower Assets Management Limited and Blue Ribbon Bureau De Change.
Jacobs sought to tender the document through a prosecution witness, Mr Mahmud Wambai, the manager of a Mubi branch of the Zenith Bank Plc.
Counsel to Nyako, Mr Yakubu Mekyau SAN, however objected to the admissibility of the document.
Mekyau argued that the prosecution must comply with the provisions of section 84(4) of the Evidence Act 2011
Specifically, he said Wambai was not the maker of the document and therefore could not tender or give evidence on the document.
Mekyau said that when the alleged transaction took place in the bank, the witness was not a manager in the bank.
He urged the court to reject the document as same could not be tendered as evidence by the witness

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