From: Godwin Tsa, Abuja

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of an Abuja  Federal High Court has warned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against sloppy prosecution of the charge brought against former Interior Minister, Abba Moro and others.

Other people charged with Moro in the suit are former Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Anesthesia Nwobia and  a Deputy Director in the ministry, F.O. Alayabami.

They are standing trial alongside a private company, Drexel Nigeria Ltd are standing trial over alleged N676 million recruitment fraud.

Justice Dimgba, who lambasted the anti-graft agency over its failure to produce a witness in court for continuation of the trial, threatened to take necessary action should the witness fails to appear on the next adjourned date fixed for October 4.

The case was fixed for Wednesday for trial but when ‎it was called up, the prosecution counsel, Mrs. Elizabeth Alabi said her witness was not in court due to the inability to communicate with him.

Her words; “My lord the fourth prosecution witness (Pw4) is not in court. He is a subpoenaed witness and we were unable to hold a pre-trial session due to the two days public holiday, we were unable to communicate with him.

“The witness is a banker and resides in Lagos. In the circumstances, we shall be asking for an adjournment to enable us bring our witness to court.” She prayed the court.

‎Irked by the development Justice Dimgba lambasted the prosecution over what he described as a sloppy prosecution of the case.

Justice Dimgba said, ” This is your case and you have to arrange it in such a way as to avoid this kind of nonsense. Your reasons sounds a little sloppy with respect.

“If I strike out this case for want of diligent prosecution, a lot of noise would be made by people who were not in court. We have to stop this nonsense and let it not repeat itself, you have to be ready for trial at the next adjourned date or else I will take the necessary action.” Justice Dimgba threatened.

‎It was the turn of the defence counsel to condemned the attitude of the prosecution even as they urged the court to take drastic action.

For instance, counsel to Abba Moro, Chief A.T. Kehinde (SAN) objected to the application for adjournment on the ground that the reasons for it was not genuine.

In the alternative, he demanded that the prosecution counsel should be made to write an undertaking ‎that she will produce the witness on the next adjourned date.

On his part, Chief Chris Uche (SAN) who appeared for the 2nd defendant (Mrs. Nwobia) said the court has spoken his mind on the issue adding that the matter was suffered an adjournment on May 19 at the instance of the prosecution.

Sunday Ameh (SAN) representing ‎Drexel Nigerian Ltd asked the court to issue a warrant of arrest on prosecution witness for disobeying a subpoena issued by the court.

Ameh submitted that a subpoena is a command issued by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and not an invitation to a party.

He added that since the witness disobeyed the subpoena, the court should teach him a bitter lesson by issuing a warrant of his arrest‎.

In his ruling, Justice Dimgba pleaded with the defence lawyers to keep their powder dry and see what would happen on the next adjourned date.

‎When the matter came up on May 19, 2017, a prosecution witness (Pw3) Muftahu Bello from the Corporate Affairs Commission [CAC] had testified  that the companies that executed the contract for the mounting of the e-recruitment portal of the Nigeria Immigration Service [NIS] are dully registered by the commission.

 Bello, from the Registry Department of the Commission gave the names of the registered companies as Drexel Tech Nigeria Limited and Drexel Nigeria Limited.

The witness was summoned by the prosecution to tender documents in court relating to the trial.

He however told the court that another company, Drexel Tech Global has not been registered with the Commission.

Some of the documents tendered in evidence the prosecution counsel, Mr. Yusuf Aliyu through the witness include a letter from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC] to the Corporate Affairs Commission dated January 28, 2016 with the title “investigation Activities.

Another letter from the Commission to CAC dated March 3, 2016 with similar title was also tendered and admitted and marked as an exhibit by Justice Nnamdi Dimgba.

Meantime, the prosecution counsel has sought for an adjournment to enable him file and serve of counsel to the defendants, additional proof of evidence to tender additional documents.

Although the prosecution witness had initially told the court that only one company from the three companies mentioned in the EFCC letter to CAC for investigation was registered, he admitted under cross examination by counsel to Drexel Nigerial Ltd, Sunday Ameh (SAN) that two companies were actually registered by the CAC.

   Bello also admitted under cross examination that although CAC has a legal department, he does not work in the said department.

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS),  conducted recruitment on March 15, 2014, that led to the death of 15 applicants, while several others were wounded.

A former Controller-General of the Service, David Paradang, told the court that he was not aware of the 2014 recruitment.

Mr. Paradang was Controller-General between June 2013 and August 2015.

Another prosecution witness from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) had testified  that due process was followed in the award of contract to a private company, Drexel Nigeria Ltd for the mounting of the e-recruitment portal of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

The evidence came through  the Director, Compliance certification and Monitoring of the Bureau, Engr. Ishaq Yahaya who was cross examined by counsel to the defendants in the ongoing trial of former Minister of Interior, Abba Moro.

He had earlier testified on his evidence-in-chief that the botched recruitment exercise into the Nigeria Immigration Service was carried out in contravention of the Public Procurement Act.

But under cross examination by counsel to the former Minister of Interior, Mr. Paul Erokoro (SAN), the witness told Justice Nnamdi Dimgba that the project was approved by the Ministerial Tenders Board (MTB) under the Chairmanship of the Permanent Secretary.

According to the Yahaya, the minutes of the meeting of the meeting of the Ministerial Tenders Board which approved the contract for the e-recruitment was signed by M.B Ibrahim the Director of procurement and secretary of Tenders board, including Mrs. Bola Adewole, Director of Legal Adviser.

He admitted that the recruitment exercise into the NIS was a security project covered under section 43 (3)(c) of the Public Procurement Act, which also exempts the procurement entity when issues of national security are involved.

The witness further admitted that the former minister of interior (1st defendant) had informed the BPP that they invited three other companies to bid even though the ministry received unsolicited proposal from Drestel Ltd.

The witness further confirmed that the Ministerial Tenders Board awarded the contract to Drestal Ltd following its experience in e- recruitment portal.

He further confirmed that the Head of Service of the Federation had approved the recruitment of staff into NIS as far back as 2012 adding that a previous exercise was cancelled due to malpractices.

According to him, it was on this basis that government  resort to e- recruitment so as to solve the problem of manual recruitment.

He agreed with Erokoro that e-recruitment would not have been done without a portal.

Also under cross examination by Chief Chris Uche (SAN), counsel to the 2nd defendant ( Anastacia Nwobia,  a Deputy Director in the ministry), Yahaya told the court that the time the Bureau wrote to the ministry and obtained it’s  response,  the botched recruitment exercise had already taken place as the exercise took place on March 15, 2014.

“The work we did as a Bureau was a post mortem exercise of the process that has taken place. It was a post procurement review. The Technical Evaluation committee had already done their work and submitted to tenders board. The ministerial Tenders board was properly constituted and was chaired by the 2nd defendant.