Alleged N1.4bn Fraud: Again, defendant stalls proceedings, court warns Nadabo Energy Boss’ counsel

The trial of Abubakar Ali Peters and his company, Nadabo Energy Limited, for alleged N1.4billion fraud, before Justice Christopher Balogun of the Lagos High Court Ikeja, was again, stalled on Monday, as the counsel for the defendant, Osagie Isiramen, told the court that the defence was not ready to continue with the cross-examination of the fifth prosecution witness, Abdulrasheed Bawa, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The EFCC is prosecuting Abubakar and his company on a 27-count charge for allegedly using forged documents to obtain the sum of N1,464,961,978.24 from the Federal Government as an oil subsidy, after inflating the quantity of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, purportedly imported and supplied by the company. On December 20, 2021, the defence counsel had begun his cross-examination of the witness. He also cross-examined the witness at the proceedings of January 25, 2022.

On Monday’s proceedings, which was meant for the continuation of cross-examination, Isiramen told the Court that he would not be able to continue. He hinged his inability to continue with the cross-examination on the argument that the defence was yet to receive a Certified True Copy (CTC) of the court’s records of proceedings. “We are not ready to continue, he said. “We had applied for the certified copy of the proceedings, but we are yet to receive same,” he added.

The Judge, who expressed surprise at the argument of the defence counsel, stated that the records of proceedings had already been prepared and that no certification was required since they were needed only for cross-examination of the witness.