An FCT High Court Maitama on Tuesday admitted a set of exhibits into evidence in the trial of Babachair Lawal, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and five others.
NAN reports that the former SGF and his brother, Hamidu, a director of Rholavision Engineering Limited; an employee of the company, Sulaiman Abubakar and the Managing Director of Josmon Technologies Limited, Apeh John Monday were charged by the EFCC with 10 counts of conspiracy and fraud.
EFCC accused Babachir Lawal of illegally benefiting from the approval of N544 million for the removal of invasive plant species and simplified irrigation.
The anti-graft agency alleged that Lawal, being the SGF, Hamidu Lawal as the Director of Rholavision Engineering Limited and Abubakar, a staff of Rholavision, about March 7, 2016, at Abuja conspired to commit the offence.
It alleged that the defendants fraudulently acquired a property, contrary to Section 26 (1) (c) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.
Ruling on the admissibility of these the documents, Justice Jude Okeke, admitted a letter and a forensic report into evidence.
According to him the exhibits, complied with the relevant sections of the law while the CD and the print out did not comply with sections 104 of Evidence Act and 379 (1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015.
The documents are a forwarding letter dated March 20, 2018 for a forensic extraction of evidence from an iPhone.
Others are a forensic report, CD and a print out from the disc.
He fixed December 3 for cross- examination of the prosecution’s second witness, Fatima Umar.
The six defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against them.
NAN reports that on September 18, EFCC brought Fatima Umar, second witness, an EFCC officer and head, forensic unit to testify.
The prosecuting counsel, Ufon Uket, sought to tender some documents through her but this was objected by all the counsel to the defendants.
Earlier, Responding to the objections by counsel to the defendants’ counsel, Uket told the court that the document he intended to tender was a letter of request for forensic extraction of evidence.
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