Alleged N1.35bn fraud: Lamido, EFCC disagree over witness

A former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday disagreed over the subpoenaed witness brought to the Federal High Court, Abuja, by the commission.

This occurred shortly before the trial resumed.

The EFCC arraigned Lamido for alleged money laundering to the tune of N1. 35 billion.

The former governor was alongside his two sons – Aminu and Mustapha; Aminu Wada Abubakar and their companies – Bamaina Holdings Limited and Speeds International Limited.

The defendants, through their lawyer, Joe Agi (SAN), had applied that the EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, be summoned or any other staff, to give evidence in their defence, after their no-case submission was dismissed.

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The defendants had opted for a no-case submission after the prosecution closed its case by calling 17 witnesses.

Although the case was initially reassigned to Justice Peter Lifu by the chief judge after the Supreme Court judgement which upheld the court ruling, the commission insisted that Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, the earlier trial judge, concluded the matter.

The case was subsequently reassigned to Justice Ojukwu.

When the case was called on Tuesday, Kayode Oyetunde, a staff of EFCC and an investigator, was called by the prosecution counsel, Chile Okoroma (SAN), to testify.

But Agi sought an adjournment to allow him to interface with the subpoenaed witness.

Okoroma, however, opposed the application for adjournment.

The prosecution counsel, instead, prayed the court to stand down proceedings to allow the defence assess the witness as all documents produced by the subpoenaed witness had already been frontloaded before the court as evidence.

The judge, therefore, refused to adjourn the matter and threatened to strike out the subpoena if the application for adjournment was granted.

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