Again, $500,000 Bribery Trial...

 

The five-year $500,000 bribery trial of the former Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy, Mr. Farouk Lawan, has suffered another huge setback due to the transfer of the case by the Chief Judge of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Justice Ishaq Bello, from one judge to another.

According to the report, the3 documents obtained from the Federal Ministry of Justice revealed that Justice Bello’s decision to reassign the case was connected with a petition dated March 21, 2017, by Lawan, accusing the immediate past trial judge, Justice Angela Otaluka, of bias in her handling of the trial.

It was gathered that Justice Bello withdrew the case from Justice Otaluka of the Lugbe Division of the FCT High Court and transferred it to Court 32 of the Jabi Division.

Court 32 is presided over by Justice Yusuf Halilu, who will be the fourth judge that will handle the case since it was filed in 2012.

With the transfer of the case from Justice Otaluka to Justice Halilu, the case has to start from the beginning with a fresh arraignment of the defendant before the new judge.

A hearing notice served by Justice Halilu’s court on both the prosecution and the defence was part of the documents obtained from the Federal Ministry of Justice.

The hearing notice, dated June 7, 2017, showed that Justice Halilu’s court had fixed June 20 for the mention of the case.

It implies that the case will now come a day before the June 21 date earlier scheduled by Justice Otaluka to continue the trial.

Federal Government is prosecuting Lawan  before Justice Otaluka on three counts of  corrupt collection of $500,000 out of the $3m bribe he allegedly requested from the Chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited, Mr. Femi Otedola.

Lawan was accused of accepting $500,000 as a bribe for the removal of Otedola’s company’s name, Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited, from the list of firms indicted by the Lawan-led House committee for allegedly abusing the fuel subsidy regime in 2012.

The prosecution was nearing the end of its case, having called four out of its five proposed witnesses, when the Chief Judge suddenly withdrew the case from Justice Otaluka and re-assigned it to Justice Halilu.

With four of the proposed witnesses having testified, the prosecution was left to call Otedola as its last witness.

This is the second time a petition by Lawan, alleging bias against the trial judge, will cause the Chief Judge to transfer the case to a new judge.

The bribery case was withdrawn from the trial judge, Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi, and reassigned after Lawan lost his preliminary objection to the charges at the Court of Appeal.

On November 18, 2014, the second trial judge, Justice Adebukola Banjoko, who was presiding over the case in Gudu Division of the FCT judiciary, withdrew from the case over allegation of likelihood of bias levelled against her by Lawan.

Lawan had, in a petition to the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, seeking the reassignment of the case to another judge, stated that Justice Banjoko was likely to be biased.

This, Lawan said, was because the judge and her family were allegedly close to Otedola, whom he (Lawan) said was a proposed prosecution witness and his (Lawan’) accuser.

Apart from the petition, Lawan had also, through his counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), filed a motion before Justice Banjoko, asking her to disqualify herself from further handling the case on the same grounds of likelihood of bias.

He had, in the two documents, alleged that Justice Banjoko voluntarily withdrew from the case and ordered the case file to be returned to the FCT Chief Judge, Justice Ibrahim Bukar, despite the withdrawal of the motion filed by Lawan.

A letter by the private prosecuting counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), seeking the AGF’s “directive as to the next line of action”, described Lawan as being “notorious for making undeserved allegation when he feels he is likely to lose”.