NAN-H-45
Documents
By Wandoo Sombo
Abuja, May 17, 2017 (NAN) The trial of former Governor of Adamawa, Alhaji Murtala Nyako, was on Wednesday, stalled at the Federal High Court, Abuja over inadmissibility of some prosecution’s documents.
This followed the objection by the defence counsel, Mr Yakubu Maikyau (SAN), to the tendering of 11 volumes of the some documents by the prosecution.
Maikyau had argued that the documents were served on them on Tuesday and that they were unable to peruse them because they were voluminous.
He told the court that they tried their best to study the documents within the short period but that it was impossible to go through all.
He, therefore, prayed the court for an adjournment to enable the defence properly study the documents and properly prepare for defence.
Prosecuting counsel, Mr Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), had sought to tender in evidence, 11 volumes of some documents through a witness, Mr Adamu Digil.
He told the court that the documents were vouchers for various payments made by the state government between 2008 and 2014.
Jacobs said that he served the defence with the documents on Tuesday with the understanding that the court would go on with the matter on Wednesday.
He argued that on the last adjourned date, the court ordered that the documents be made available to the defence and that he complied.
The prosecutor also said that in the interest of fair hearing and considering that the witness came in from Adamawa, the defence should allow him to tender the documents so that they would be in the court’s custody.
The judge, Justice Okon Abang, ruled that the documents should be left in the custody of the court pending the court’s decision on their admissibility.
Abang adjourned the matter until June 19 to take arguments on whether or not the documents would be admitted in evidence.
Nyako and his son, Sen. Abdulaziz Murtala-Nyako, are standing trial over alleged fraud of N40 billion.
They are facing a 37-count money laundering charge alongside two others, Zulkifik Abba and Abubakar Aliyu.
They allegedly diverted the funds from the Adamawa Government treasury between January, 2011 and December, 2014. (NAN)
WS/OPI/OPI
Edited by Olisa Ifeajika