Court admits N24bn Police Pension fraud suspect’s statements

By -

(Nigeria) The trial-within-trial of Veronica Onyegbula, who is standing trial along with a former director at the Police Pension Office, Esai Dangabar, for an alleged N24 billion pension fraud, continued on June 20, 2018 with the court dismissing the objection against the admissibility of her statements made to the EFCC.
E.C. Ikeji, counsel for Onyegbula, had objected to the application of the prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, to tender her statements dated February 13, 15, and 17, 2012, and May 2, 2102.
Onyegbula, a former cashier in the Police Pension Office, testifying as the first defence witness, had in the course of the trial challenged the admissibility of the statements, thus necessitating the need for the trial-within-trial.
Ikeji had argued that the statements were made “involuntarily” by the witness, and so could not be tendered in court.
Jacobs, however, countered Ikeji’s argument, citing Section 104 of the Evidence Act.
He said: “My lord, recall that the trial-within-trial is a separate trial and I need to tender the documents for the purpose of the trial-within- trial because that is the subject matter of the trial-within-trial. We must prove whether the document which is the statement was taken voluntarily or not.
“My learned colleague can only argue on the procedure that the statements were taken and not the statements themselves. There is a need to look critically at the content of the documents in a bid to determine the voluntariness.”
After listening to the arguments, the trial judge, went through the statements in contention and admitted them as Exhibits D1 to D5, respectively.
The case has been adjourned to October 9, 2018.
It will be recalled that Dangabar and Onyegbula are standing trial along with Atiku Abubakar Kigo, Ahmed Inuwa Wada, Sani Habila Zira, Uzoma Cyril Attang and Christian Madubuke.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UBTH @50: Obaseki hails institution’s role in strengthening Edo healthcare

By -
Image
(Nigeria) Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, has commended the staff and management of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, for their unwavering commitment, dedication, and hard work in providing high-quality healthcare services to the people of Edo State and Nigeria in the past fifty years. Obaseki, at a dinner organized in honour of the Committee of Chief Medical Directors of Nigeria, at the Government House, Benin City, reassured the government’s continuous partnership and collaboration with the federal government-owned health institution to strengthen the health system and ensure quality health delivery to Edo people. The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Philip Shaibu, reeled out the gains of the government’s reforms in the health sector, commending the medical centre for bolstering the government’s efforts at transforming Edo State into a health hub. He said, "We came into a wilderness where you have to cut a part for yourself and fix it. We held...
Read more

Osun: S'Court ruling affirmed power resides with the people - Diri

By -
Image
*Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri (Nigeria) Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, has said the ruling of the country’s apex court on the Osun State governorship election was an affirmation that power in a democracy resided with the people. Governor Diri, while congratulating Senator Ademola Adeleke in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Alabrah, on Wednesday, expressed joy that the Supreme Court sealed the mandate freely given to the governor by the Osun people. The Bayelsa governor also said the verdict reflected the current mood of the country where those whose stock-in-trade is to promote electoral violence and subvert the will of the people have no place in our electoral system. He expressed the hope that introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, will instil more confidence in the electoral process, urging the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to deepen Nigeria’s democracy by also introducing electronic votin...
Read more

NBC has no powers to impose fine on broadcast stations --Court

By -
Image
(Nigeria) The National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, has been restrained by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, from imposing fines on broadcast stations in the country. Trial judge in the matter, Justice James Omotosho also set aside the N500,000 fines imposed on March 1, 2019, on each of 45 broadcast stations. The court made the orders in its judgment a suit by the Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda, MRA, which had sued the NBC. Justice Omotosho held that the NBC, not being a court of law, had no power to impose sanctions as punishment on broadcast stations. The court further held that the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, which gives the commission the power to impose sanction, is in conflict with Section 6 of the Constitution that vested judicial power in the court of law. He said the court would not sit idle and watch a body imposing fine arbitrarily without recourse to the law. He said that the commission did not comply with the law when it sat as a complainant and at...
Read more