Ramon Oladimeji

The ongoing trial of a former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Patrick Akpobolokemi, and five others for an alleged fraud of N2.6bn was stalled on Monday.

The hearing was stalled due to the absence of the last witness for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Chukwuma Orji.

Orji, who is an investigator with the anti-graft agency, was said to have gone a trip to the UK with the acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, for a meeting with the National Crime Agency, UK.

When Akpobolokemi’s case was called on Monday, the lawyer, who appeared for the EFCC, Mr. Marcel Umeh, informed Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Lagos Federal High Court of the development.

Umeh said he knew very late that Orji, the last EFCC’s witness in the case, had travelled out of the country, and which was the reason he hadn’t written to inform the court.

While regretting all the inconveniences the development might have caused the court and the defence team, Umeh pleaded for an adjournment.

In response, one of the defence counsel, Mr. Edoka Onyeke, expressed dissatisfaction with the adjournment and prayed the court to issue a date in February, which would be convenient for all the parties.

Other defence counsel aligned themselves with Onyeke’s position.

In his ruling, Justice Buba, who said he clocked 59 on Monday, expressed displeasure at the turn of even, noting that he purposely came to court to attend to the case, which was the only case listed on his cause list for the day.

“I am 59 years old today, and I am here in court prepared to go on with the matter hoping we would make progress; if I had this idea that the court will not sit then I wouldn’t have bothered.

“This is the only case listed in my diary for the week and I came here with the hope that there would be a remarkable progress,” the judge said.

The case was eventually adjourned till February 28, 2016 for the EFCC’s last witness to be cross-examined by the the defence counsel.

Akpobolokemi was arraigned before Justice Buba on December 4, 2015 on 22 counts of alleged N2.6bn fraud perpetrated within NIMASA between December 2013 and May 2015.

The other defendants in the charge are Ezekiel Agaba, Ekene Nwakuche, Governor Juan, Blockz and Stonz Limited, and Al-Kenzo Logistic Limited as defendants.

Cc: lalasticlala, Mynd44

http://punchng.com/n2-6bn-fraud-witness-uk-trip-stalls-akpobolokemis-trial/

Okay

UK trip? okay

h

stephnie1:
h

for hunger

ok

OsusuMustFlow:


for hunger

are you hungry?

Another inefficiency by the prosecution team.

How could a prime witness, who must have known he had a court session on the said date have just left the country without informing the prosecution lawyer?

This is how EFCC lose some straight-forward cases.

But they say judges are overloaded with cases, how come this one has only one case for the week?

And why adjourn till Feb 28th, about seven weeks from now?

We're not serious yet in this country.

DropShot:
Another inefficiency by the prosecution team.

How could a prime witness, who must have known he had a court session on the said date have just left the country without informing the prosecution lawyer?

This is how EFCC lose some straight-forward cases.

But they say judges are overloaded with cases, how come this one has only one case for the week?

And why adjourn till Feb 28th, about seven weeks from now?

We're not serious yet in this country.

that's the country we found ourselves bro

lalasticlala, Mynd44