Hearing in N5.78bn EFCC case against ex-Kwara governor, Commissioner stalled

By Demola Akinyemi Ilorin

There was a mild drama at the Kwara State High Court on Thursday morning during the continuation of hearing in the alleged N5.78bn fraud case instituted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against former governor Abdulfatah Ahmed and his erstwhile commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Demola Banu.

Though both former governor and his Commissioner were physically present in court, the matter was stalled midway into the hearing following a sharp disagreement between the defence counsels and EFCC team on the documents tendered before the court as exhibits.

For several minutes, counsels to EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) and lead counsel to the defendants, Kamaldeen Ajibade, (SAN), argued about improper arrangement of documents served on the latter and same which was tendered before the court.

The EFCC counsel had tendered the documents to be admitted as exhibits before the court but counsel to the defendants insisted that the “bundle of documents” was different from what was served on them and were also not properly paginated nor numbered to guide the court in the proceedings.

Jacob on the other hands argued that the documents served the defence counsels and which were also available before the court were the same with the one in his possession.

He argued that it was not the duty of his team to number the documents as tendered for the defence counsels.

After listening to both parties and carefully going through the said documents, the presiding judge, Justice Mahmud Gafar, agreed with the submission of the defence counsel that the documents needed to be properly arranged.

He then adjourned the case till February 16 for continuation of hearing to allow the EFCC legal team time to properly arranged the document’s.

Fielding questions from journalists after the adjournment, Ajibade said the request for the document to be arranged properly was in order because it has to do with “proof of evidence”.

“Criminal matter was not supposed to be ambushed . What he has served on us was not properly highlighted”, he said.

Also speaking, Jacobs who insisted that it was not the duty of his team to arrange the documents however said they conceded to the party’s request in the spirit of fairness.

“They said the documents were not paginated and not arranged in chronological order in which we tendered them. It is not our duty to number the documents for them but in the spirit of fairness to the party, we conceded to them”, he said

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