A high court in the federal
capital territory (FCT) has granted the application of the Independent Corrupt
Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) to list Lai Mohammed,
former minister of information, as witness in a “N2.5 billion fraud case”.
The anti-graft agency is
prosecuting Ishaq Kawu, director-general of the National Broadcasting
Commission (NBC), for alleged abuse of office and money laundering.
Kawu and two other individuals –
Lucky Omoluwa and Dipo Onifade, chairman of Pinnacle Communications – have been
accused of misappropriating N2.5 billion in the Digital Switch-Over (DSO)
programme.
ICPC filed a 12-count in respect
of the allegations.
At the last adjourned date, Alex
Izinyon, counsel to Omoluwa and Onifade, had filed a motion prohibiting the
prosecution from listing Mohammed and Shuaibu Sabo, a bureau de change
operator, as additional witnesses.
At the court on Thursday, Abayomi
Oyelola who held the brief for Iziyon, announced withdrawal of the motion
opposing the list of additional witnesses by the ICPC.
Folashade Ogunbanjo-Giwa, the
judge, then struck out the application.
On his path, E. A. Shogunle, ICPC
lawyer, said the prosecution could not verify the address of the surety to the
first defendant (Kawu) because there was an error in the house number provided
in the bail bond.
The judge then held that since
the prosecution had withdrawn the counter affidavit to the motion, the travel
documents of all the defendants should be released to them.
She ordered that the defendants
be given their international passports in the custody of the deputy chief
registrar (DCR) and be allowed to travel within the time they stipulated in
their motions.
The judge also ordered that the
defendants should return the traveling documents to the custody of the DCR upon
their return not later than September 25.
She then adjourned the matter
till October 2.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise 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