$40m contract: EFCC’s bid for fresh evidence stalls Jonathan’s cousin’s trial

The prosecution in the trial of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s cousin, Azibaola Robert, wife, Stella and firm, Oneplus, stalled the cross-examination of its witnesses by seeking abrupt adjournment which was frowned at by Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, Abuja

Although the defendants were ready to take up issues with an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission operative, David Nkpe, who appeared as the 10th prosecution witness on Friday, prosecuting lawyer, Mr Sylvanus Tahir, again pleaded with the judge, just as he did on Wednesday, to grant him permission to ‘attend to another matter’ in another court.

Tahir said, “My Lord, I am in a difficult situation again just as I was on Wednesday and I need your authorisation to leave this matter and attend to another one in another court.”

But the judge was taken aback by the plea of Tahir and wondered why he did not prepare to go on with the case after two adjournments in a week.

The situation had taken another dimension when the prosecution tried to introduce some extraneous documents which were not listed in the proof of evidence and served on the defendants as required by the court.

But the defendants had raised objections to the move while a heated argument ensued between the two parties.

The development forced the judge to stand down the matter for one hour to enable the prosecution to furnish the defendants with the ‘fresh evidence’.

But upon resumption, Tahir suddenly rose up and asked the judge for permission to attend to another matter in a different court, a development that took the judge aback.

The EFCC operative, who was the 10th witness called by the prosecution, is the only one who claimed to have investigated Robert and his firm Oneplus and discovered that the $40 million paid to them by the ONSA was for a ‘Safe House’ but could not explain to the judge what a safe house is.

Based on the inability of the witness to explain what a safe house is, the defendants objected to the attempt to shop for an explanation and the judge upheld the objection.

“The mandate instruction shows that the payment was for a Safe House Project. But I did not confirm the property to be Safe House,” Nkpe said.”

He went on: “We investigated the utilisation of the funds and discovered that the funds were transferred to other companies including Bureau de Change and some of the funds transferred offshore to countries like London and United Arab Emirates”.

He added that, “Another sum of $1.493million was transferred to ‘Kakatar El Ltd’ which is also a company under One Plus Holdings; a sum of $2million was transferred to ‘Capitafield Investment Ltd’ and another $330,000 transferred to a company called ‘Teledom’.”

But on Wednesday, when he appeared as a witness to EFCC, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, who runs Teledom International Limited, denied transacting any business with or knowing Robert, his wife or his firm