N136m fraud: EFCC closes case against former acting NIMASA DG

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Monday, called its eighth and last witness in the trial of a former acting Director General of NIMASA, Calistus Obi, charged with N136 million fraud.

Obi, who was also an executive director of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety (NIMASA), was charged alongside one Alu Dismas, a former personal assistant to  the  former  director general of NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi.

They are standing trial on eight counts bordering on the offence to which they had pleaded not guilty to the charges and were admitted to bail in the sum of N5 million each.

At the resumed hearing of the case on Monday,  the defence counsel, Mr Wale Akoni, commenced cross examination for the  prosecution witness, Mr Chukwuma Orji, who is an investigation officer with  EFCC.

Under cross examination, Akoni showed the witness an exhibit representing a mandate card on intelligence gathering and asked him to identify if the first accused was a signatory.

In response, the witness, argued that the exhibit was only a part of the mandate card and did not represent the entire document.

When asked to restrict himself to the portion given to him, the witness replied: “in this part of the mandate, his name is not one of the signatories but I insist that this is not the entire mandate,”

The trial judge, Justice Mojisola Olatoregun, informed counsels that she did not possess the luxury of time and so, would only avail parties one month to sought themselves.

She, then, adjourned the case till December 15 for parties to adopt their processes.