Abuja-July 10. The Federal High Court, Abuja has fixed July 14 for the continuation of the trial of 15 persons arrested over their alleged involvement in the invasion of former Supreme Court Justice, Mary Peter-Odili’s house.
When the matter pending before Justice Ekerete Akpan was called, the prosecuting counsel, Mr J.I. Kpandeh, told the court that the matter was for the continuation of the trial.
Kpandeh proceeded to call the third Prosecution Witness (PW3), CSP Solomon Gotang, to continue with his testimony.
The prosecutor led the witness to tender a letter written to the office of the force secretary, and the reply received thereafter.
While all the defendants did not object to the admissibility of the letter to the force secretary, they, however, objected to the reply being admitted in evidence.
Counsel to the first defendant, Mr Edeh Chukwuebuka, said that his reason for objecting to the admissibility of the document was that the document was different from what the witness had identified.
Following objections from other defence counsel on similar grounds, the prosecutor was forced to withdraw the document to get it certified before tendering it in evidence.
He said that not certifying it was an oversight, as the document was essential in proving his case against the defendants.
The prosecutor also tendered another document, which he said was an analysis done by the witness of the investigation.
When asked how he would ascertain the authenticity of the document, the witness said it had certain features that would make him identify it.
“I can identify it because it is a two-page document with the logo of the Nigerian Police Force and on each of the pages, there is a diagrammatic presentation of the respective roles played by the defendants.”
The document was admitted in evidence since there was no objection.
The prosecution subsequently prayed the court for an adjournment to allow the defendants cross examine the witness on the next adjourned date.
The trial Judge, Justice Ekerete Akpan adjourned the matter until July 14.
The News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) recalls that the defendants in the trial include Adjodo Lawrence (Aka Ola Ojo), Micheal Diete-spiff, Alex Onyekuru, Bayero Lawal (aka director of EFCC) and Igwe Ernest.
Others are Aliyu Ibrahim, Maimuna Maishanu, Ayodele Akindipe (Aka Herbalist) and Yusuf Adaiu (aka godson to Peter Odili), Bashir Musa, Stanley Nkwazema and Shehu Jibo.
They are standing trial on an 18- count criminal charge bordering on conspiracy, forgery and unlawful invasion.
They, however, pleaded not guilty to all the charges when they were arraigned and were admitted to bail in the sum of N5 million each and two sureties each in like sum.
NAN reports that the case was previously handled by Justice Nkeonye Maha but following her transfer to another division, the case was transferred to Justice Akpan.