A Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday admitted in evidence items recovered from the house of ex-Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that ex-Chief of Defence Staff is standing trial for money laundering, an offence he allegedly committed while serving as Chief of Air Staff.
Giving his ruling, Justice Okon Abang held that the items were admissible, adding that they were primary materials related to the case.
Abang said: “I had carefully listened to the arguments of all counsel in respect to the admissibility of the red box and two way bills.
“I had also carefully looked at the witness statement in evidence on how those items were recovered.
“The defence team was not opposed to the admissibility of the search warrant but only opposed to the admissibility of the red box and two way bills.
“The items in question are primary evidence in this matter and they are very important to the prosecution case as well.
“I hereby admit the search warrant, red box and two way bills as exhibit T103 to T106 respectively.”
The items were produced by a prosecution witness, Goji Mohammed, an official of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, on February 21, while presenting his evidence in chief.
Part of the evidence was $1 million recovered from a house said to belong to Badeh in Abuja.
Mohammed, who continued with his testimony on Wednesday, said the reason the red box, which contained a knife, was brought in as an exhibit was because of the inscription on the knife: “Excellent in Aviation.”
He further said that Badeh’s house was searched in his absence because he was not in Abuja.
Mohammed said the commission also needed to act fast on the information that alleged that incriminating items in the house were being removed.
Mohammed had on February 21 told the court how the EFCC team also recovered $1 million from the defendant’s house.
Earlier, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), the prosecution counsel, had prayed the court to tender a DVD of how the search was conducted.
Lasun Sanusi (SAN), the defendant’s counsel, objected to the attempt on the grounds that the DVD was not part of the evidence before the court.
Sanusi said they were seeing the DVD for the first time in the court, adding that the prosecution’s team would have front loaded it with the rest.
Jacobs, however, withdrew the motion to tender the DVD and asked for an adjournment to enable his team make a copy of the DVD available to the defence team.
The Judge obliged the prosecution counsel and adjourned the case to March 20, 21 and 23.
NAN
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