Court rejects EFCC evidence against Babachir Lawal in N544m misappropriation case

The case of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCc) against a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir Lawal met a hurdle on Friday as Justice Charles Agbaza of an FCT High Court rejected evidence presented by the commission.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that the former SGF was charged alongside his younger brother, Hamidu, who is a director of Rholavision Engineering Limited; an employee of the company, Suleiman Abubakar; Managing Director of Josmon Technologies Limited, Apeh John Monday; and two companies: Rholavision Engineering Limited and Josmon Technologies Limited.

A 10-count fraud charge was leveled against them by the EFCC in relation to a contract awarded by the Presidential Initiative for the North-East (PINE) for the removal of evasive plant species to the tune of N544million.

They all pleaded not guilty.

In his ruling, Justice Agbaza agreed with the defendants that the court in 2021 rejected some exhibits on the said phone.

However, he criticized the EFCC for attempting to introduce court records and exhibits already rejected.

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“I have carefully examined the foundation of arguments for and against the admissibility of the evidence in dispute and found only two issues for determination.

“The first issue is on whether the evidence of the prosecution witness falls on hearsay in respect of the exhibits, while the second issue is on whether this court has once rejected the exhibits sought to be tendered.

“On issue one, the witness on his own informed the court of how he was invited into the EFCC laboratory and was shown information extracted from a iPhone7.

“On this, I am satisfied that the witness is not the maker of the exhibits in dispute. They were only shown to him according to his oral evidence here.

“Therefore, anything said or to be said by the witness is nothing but hearsay and for this reason, I resolve this issue in favour of the defendants.

“On the second issue, there is no dispute that the exhibits were earlier sought to be tendered but they were turned down and marked rejected and even, the rejection is a subject of appeal at the Court of Appeal.

“For this reason, I agree that the evidence cannot be admitted having been earlier rejected and marked rejected,” Justice Agbaza held.

Justice Agbaza adjourned the case until Feb. 16 and Feb. 17 for continuation of hearing.

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