Ex-Naval chief’s counsel’s objection forces court to adjourn till June 14

JUSTICE Sadiq Umar of a high court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) sitting at Maitama, Abuja, on Monday, adjourned the ongoing trial of a former Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Usman Jibrin (retd) and three others till June 14 to rule on the admissibility of a document sought to be tendered by the prosecution.

Admiral Jibrin was dragged before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) along with Rear Admiral Bala Mshelia (retd) and Rear Admiral Shehu Ahmadu (retd) and Harbour Bay International Limited on a four-count charge bordering on criminal conspiracy and purchase of a property valued at N600 million from the account of Naval Engineering Services Limited (NESL) without budgetary provision.

The judge adjourned the matter following an objection raised by the counsel for the former Chief of Naval Staff, Yakubu Maikyau (SAN), when the prosecution sought to tender the Navy’s budget from 2013 to 2014 through the fourth prosecution witness (PW4), Mr Abdulkadir Wakili, from the Nigerian Navy budget office, Abuja.

The senior advocate objected to its admissibility, adding that the same document was presented already in the Navy budget and that it was not admissible in law.

He urged the court to reject the document from being admitted as an exhibit before the court.

Responding to this, the prosecution counsel, Mr Abdullah Farouk, argued that the document was admissible, adding that tendering it was in line with Section 106 (b) of the Evidence Act.

Farouk further argued that the document was approved by the National Assembly, adding that the court should discountenance the objection by the first defendant’s counsel and admit the document as an exhibit.

The prosecution had earlier called the Managing Director of the company which sold the property, which is the subject matter in the case, to Harbour Bay International Limited, Petrus Ogwu Nigeria Limited, Mr Peter Ogwu, to testify in the matter as the third prosecution witness (PW3).

While being led in evidence by Farouk, Ogwu informed the court that his company sold the property in March, 2014, to Harbour Bay, adding that he handed over all the legal documents of the property to the Diamond Bank branch office manager where the money for the property was paid in.