Search Blog / Web

Custom Search

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Court rejects EFCC’s graphic presentation in Atuche’s trial

The Punch - Nigeria's Most Widely Read Newspaper
Breaking News, information and opinion in Nigeria
Court rejects EFCC's graphic presentation in Atuche's trial
Dec 6th 2012, 23:19

A Lagos High Court in Ikeja on Thursday stopped an Economic and Financial Crimes witness, Hamanda Bello, from using a graphic presentation to support his testimony in the ongoing trial of former Managing Director of Bank PHB, Francis Atuche.

Atuche is standing trial for allegedly stealing the bank's N25.7bn alongside his wife, Elizabeth and former Financial Officer of the bank, Ugo Anyanwu.

The trial judge, Justice Lateefa Okunnu, in her ruling, held that the “memory stick” containing the document sought to be tendered as exhibit by EFCC failed to comply with the provisions of Section 84 of the Evidence Act.

She upheld the submissions by the defence lawyers – Chief Anthony Idigbe (SAN) and Sylva Oguemoh, that the device contained information copied from a computer and so should not be accepted as a primary document.

Okunnu said, “It is a reproduction of data produced by a computer and so it is a document.

“Section 84 states that such a document must be duly certified.

“It is inadmissible in law. The objection is sustained and the “memory stick” is hereby rejected in evidence”.

Meanwhile, EFCC's counsel, Kemi Pinheiro (SAN), urged the court to dismiss the objection.

He had faulted Idigbe's argument on the grounds that the defence had a complete misconception of the provisions of Section 84 of the Evidence Act, an argument which was overruled by the court

However, Bello, an operative of the anti-graft agency, after he was stopped from using the device, said his investigating team was able to trace some fraudulent loans advanced to some companies during Atuche's reign as the bank's managing director.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com.

If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...