The six-year-old money laundering
case preferred against Sen. Danjuma Goje by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC,n suffered yet another adjournment on Tuesday after the
Presiding Judge, Justice Babatunde Quadiri, developed a sudden health
challenge.
The EFCC had alleged that Goje,
then Gombe State Governor, had conspired with three officers of his
administration to defraud the state of N25 billion via illegal acts, contrary
to, and punishable under sections 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 of the Money Laundering
(Prohibition Act) 2011 as amended.
Hearing on the case resumed at
9.05 a.m. at the Jos Federal High Court II but came to a sudden halt at 2.00
p.m. when the Judge’s health showed signs of deteriorating.
Quadiri, who had appeared
uncomfortable after coughing for sometime, stood down the case after meeting
with lawyers from both sides in his chamber.
At the hearing, the Prosecution
Counsel, Mr Wahab Shittu, called his last prosecution witness, Mr Chris Owubu,
an EFCC official, to give his evidence.
Owubu successfully told the court
how he conducted investigation into an alleged forged resolution letter in
which the then House of Assembly gave the Gombe government the nod to obtain a
N5 billion loan facility from Access Bank, in 2006.
However, when the Defence
Counsel, Mr Paul Erokoro (SAN), began the cross examination of the witness, the
judge started coughing.
The Judge, who had concealed his
state of health, tried to suppress the cough until he couldn’t stand it any
more and pleaded for a discussion with the lawyers in his chamber.
At the chamber, Quadiri told the
lawyers that he had hoped to conceal his poor health to them and continue the
case so as to conclude the matter in two days as earlier agreed.
He urged the counsels to agree on
a new date to continue the matter.
NAN reports that the two lawyers
– Erokoro and Shittu – sympathized with the Judge and agreed to adjourn to
enable him to take care of his health.
The case was then adjourned to April
10 and 11, 2018 for continuation of hearing.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everydayAdvertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com