Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Babachir Lawal on Thursday asked a high court of the Federal Capital Territory to reject the evidence being given against him and five others in the on-going alleged N544m contract scam trial by an operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Babachir Lawal, through his counsel, Chief Akin Olujimi SAN, raised the objection to the line of evidence being given before Justice Charles Agbaza by the witness, Mr Dare Folarin, when the witness wanted to narrate what happened at the commission’s digital laboratory on an iPhone belonging to one Musa Bulani.
Asking the court to reject the line of evidence, Olujimi said what the prosecution wanted to do through Folarin was to smuggle in an evidence earlier rejected by the same court when it ruled against admitting a Compact Disc on the said iPhone.
Counsel for other defendants also aligned themselves with the submission of the senior advocate with the counsel for the third defendant, Napoleon Idelana, informing the court that EFCC had already filed an appeal against the ruling of the court on the rejection of the disc.
Responding, prosecuting counsel, Mr Ofem Uket, urged the court to discountenance the objection raised by the defence team, saying that the evidence being given by the witness was not a hearsay as he was narrating what he and other investigators did at the EFCC laboratory on the iPhone.
Having listening to arguments by parties, Justice Agbaza adjourned to Friday, January 28, 2022 to give a ruling on the objection raised by the defendants.
Earlier, Folarin had told the court that former EFCC acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu, had constituted a five-member team to investigate an alleged abuse of office and lack of due process in the award of contract by the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE) as contained in the presidential report.
He told the court that the team wrote letters of investigation activities to banks, including Ecobank, FCMB and other banks as well as the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), among others.
The witness told the court that the violation of abuse of office concerned the award of contract to Rholavision Engineering Limited, which investigation showed that Babachir has some interest.
According to him, Rholavision was awarded a consultancy contract by PINE sometimes in March, 2016 at a time the first defendant was serving as SGF.
He said the ministerial tenders board was domiciled in the Office of the SGF, with one Musa Bulani as its Secretary, who the witness said signed the letter of award to both Rholavision and Josmon Technologies Limited.
According to him, Monday Apeh, who he said was the promoter of Josmon was invited by EFCC and he was given the Presidential report to read, which he did after which he was asked to write his statement.
He further told the court that it was discovered that Josmon transferred most of the.money paid to it by the Federal Government into its FCMB account to Rholavision.
Folarin told the court that the iPhone of Bulani was taken to EFCC’s digital laboratory in March, 2018, where the investigating team requested for text messages sent and received, WhatsApp messages and message that might have been deleted to be analysed.
It was at the point of telling the court that while members of the team were in the laboratory they were shown a message on the iPhone that the defence team objected to his line of evidence that had earlier been rejected by the court.
Meanwhile, Justice Charles Agbaza will deliver ruling in the matter on January 28