Dasuki ( first defendant) alongside Shuaibu Salisu, a former Director of Finance and Administration, Office of the National Security Adviser; Aminu Babakusa, a former General Manager, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation; Acacia Holdings Limited and Reliance Referral Hospital Limited are being prosecuted by the EFCC on a 19-count charge bordering on money laundering and criminal breach of trust to the tune of N13, 570,000, 000.00( Thirteen Billion, Five Hundred and Seventy Million Naira).
At Thursday’s sitting, Dawodu adopted his written address, a 19-paragraph affidavit praying the court to prohibit the prosecution from continuing with the trial of the first defendant on the grounds that he ( Dasuki) was re-arrested after being granted bail by the court.
Dawodu also prayed the court for a stay of further proceedings pending the time he (Dasuki) would seek enforcement of his right to liberty as ordered by the court.
According to him, the first defendant had not been able to prepare for the trial because he had been denied his freedom.
He added: ‘‘My Lord, so far, my client has been treated like a convict, even when the trial has not commenced. The respondent, in his counter-affidavit, has sought to differentiate the EFCC that he is representing from the Department of State Services, DSS. But we have shown that they all work for the same master.’’
Reacting to Dawodu’s address, Justice Baba-Yusuf, however, raised a poser, saying, ‘‘If the EFCC, as you have just said, breached or flouted my orders, is it possible for me to stop the Police, for instance, from preferring criminal charges against the defendant, if he has committed another offence?”
While adopting his written address, prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, stated that the court order that granted the first defendant bail did not confer immunity on him from being re-arrested, if any other criminal charge had been preferred against him by any other institution of government.
According to him, the EFCC and other institutions of government are entitled to use the name of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to institute a case or action against anyone.
‘‘In this case, if the court ruled against the prosecution, it will be against the EFCC and not the DSS,’’ he added.
He further told the court that the application for stay of proceedings filed by the counsel to the first defendant was intended to scuttle the trial.
According to him, ‘‘it is an abuse of process because it (the application) does not relate to this case. My Lord, the application is too ambitious; it lacks merit and should not be granted. There is no order of this court that says that the first defendant cannot be re-arrested, if he is alleged to have committed another offence apart from this. The application for stay of proceedings does not arise in this case at this stage because the first defendant has not filed any appeal.”
He further stated that Section 46 of the Constitution avails the defence counsel to seek the enforcement of the fundamental right of his client at the Federal High Court, where he had been granted bail that the DSS was said to have breached.
Justice Baba-Yusuf, who lauded the prosecution for not going outside the content of his written address, told counsel to the first defendant that his application for stay of proceedings was unnecessary at this stage.
‘‘Don’t you think your application is premature? You have not convinced me in your address why I should grant your prayer’’, he said.
Meanwhile, Justice Baba-Yusuf also refused the prayers of the counsel to the second, third, fourth and fifth defendants to be heard on some issues which, according to them, were constitutional in the application filed by the counsel to the first defendant.
Though they had individually argued at the last sitting that they were also parties to the application, Justice Baba-Yusuf refused their prayers because none of them filed any process after the prosecution had served them each his counter-application to the affidavit filed by counsel to the first defendant.
Consequently, Justice Baba-Yusuf adjourned to Monday, February 8, 2016 for ruling on the application for stay of proceedings by the defence.
In another development, the trial of a former governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, his son, Senator Abdul-Aziz Nyako, Abubakar Aliyu and Zulkifikk Abba, who are being prosecuted by the EFCC, on a 37-count charge bordering on criminal conspiracy, stealing, abuse of office and money laundering to the tune of N29 billion continued on February 4, 2016.
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.
Their trial before Justice E. Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had commenced on January 29, 2016 with the EFCC presenting its first witness, Mahmud Wambai, a staff of Zenith Bank in court.
At the resumed hearing, the EFCC presented three more witnesses – Yawale Auwalu, Philip Olukayode, both staff of Ecobank Nigeria Plc and Caroline Osaha, a staff of First Bank Nigeria Plc.
Auwalu, the 2nd prosecution witness and an account officer, being led in evidence by Adebisi Adeniyi, counsel to the EFCC, told the court that in August 2014 the agency requested bank documents relating to Amdak Investments Limited and Amdak Road Construction Limited.
“We furnished the EFCC with the certificate of identification, copies of account opening documents and the statement of accounts as requested by the Commission,” he said.
The tendered documents were admitted as exhibits by the court, and there were no objections from the defence counsel, which included Kanu Agabi, SAN, a former Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, for Nyako, his son and Serore Farms & Extension Limited; counsel to Abubakar Aliyu, Y.C Maikyau, SAN; Ibrahim Isiyaku, counsel to Zulkifikk Abba and Towers Assets; counsel to Blue Opal Nigeria limited, Olumide Olujimi; and counsel to Crust Energy Limited, O. A. Dada.
The 3rd prosecution witness, Olukayode, a relationship manager in the business banking unit of Ecobank, located at the Central Business District, Abuja, also told the court that sometime in July 2014 the EFCC requested for bank documents related to Tower Assets Management Limited.
When presented in court by the prosecution with the covering letter, mandate card, account opening documents and bank account statements related to Tower Assets Management Limited, Olukayode confirmed them to be the ones sent to the EFCC on request.
“We acted on the request by the EFCC and when we were invited to the office of the EFCC, we honoured it and we were made to make statements, which we did,” he said.
The documents were all accepted and admitted by the court as exhibits, with no objections from the defence counsel.
The 4th prosecution witness, Osaha, a relationship officer with the Utako branch of First Bank Nigeria Limited, also told the court that the EFCC sometimes in February 2015 requested for bank documents related to Blue Opal Nigeria limited and Crust Energy Limited.
“We printed the statements of account and the opening mandate, certificate of identification, and also wrote statement at the EFCC confirming the documents from the bank,” she said.
There were no objections to the authenticity of the documents by the defence, as they were admitted and accepted by the court as exhibits in the trial.
Justice Chukwu, thereafter, adjourned till March 15 and 16, 2016 for continuation of trial.
