I feel harassed by EFCC, ex-chief of naval staff, Jibrin, tells court

A former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin (retd), on Tuesday, told a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court that he feels threatened by the action of operatives of anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) who do not have regard for the fact that he is on bail.

Jibrin is being arraigned by EFCC alongside Rear Admiral Bala Mshelia (retd) and Rear Admiral Shehu Ahmadu (retd) on a four-count charge bordering on criminal conspiracy by allegedly buying a house worth N600 million from the account of Naval Engineering Services without the said purchase contract being captured in the budget.

The commission also alleged that the documentation for transfer of ownership of the property was done such that a private company owned by the family of Jibrin became the buyer of the house.

At the resumed hearing of matter on Tuesday, counsel for the first defendant, Jubrin, Yakubu Maikyau (SAN), informed the court that on 24 November, operatives of the anti-corruption commission broke into a house which the former Chief of Naval Staff let out at Kubwa in Abuja in his absence without bothering to invite him.

He further stated that it was after breaking into the house that one of the operatives deemed it fit to call Jubrin on phone, submitting that, “My client felt being harassed by EFCC.”

He told the court that the action of the commission came after it had informed the court that it had concluded its investigation of the case.

Responding to this, the presiding judge, Justice A S Umar declared that the court could neither speculate since it could not be proven that the action was connected to the ongoing trial or not nor stop EFCC from performing its statutory function of investigation.

He said the former Naval chief had two options if he felt there was any needs for them: either to complain to the commission or file for violation of his fundamental right.

The counsel for the prosecution, Joseph Uzor, however, promised that he would cross check with EFCC with a view to knowing if the raid was in connection with the ongoing trial of Jibrin and others or not.

In another development, Justice Umar has ruled that the international passports of Jibrin and Mshelia with the court be returned to them to enable them travel for medical checkups in the United Kingdom and United States respectively.

He gave the order while ruling in two different applications brought on notice before the court by Vice Admiral Jubrin (retd) and Rear Admiral Mshelia (retd).

The judge declared that their applications were granted on the ground that they had to return their respective passports to the court registrar.

In another ruling he gave on Tuesday, the judge rejected the correspondence between the investigating team and Diamond Bank which the prosecution had at the last sitting sought to tender as exhibit but objected to by Jibrin’s counsel, Maikyau (SAN) objected to its admissibility on the grounds that some of the attached documents were not duly certified by the necessary authorities.

He judge upheld that the documents attached, including driver’s licence, were not duly certified, saying that for a document to be admitted, it had to meet the conditions set aside by Section 104 of the Evidence Act and thereby rejected to admit the correspondence as exhibit.

On the computer generated bank statement also sought to be tendered as exhibit, which was objected by Maikyau (SAN), Justice Umar ruled that it was admissible and admitted it as exhibit marked as Exhibit 2A and B.

Meanwhile, the presiding judge has adjourned the case till 14 and 15 February, 2017 for continuation of trial.