Ade Adesomoju, Abuja
The Federal Government on Wednesday
said investigations had shown that a Justice of the Supreme Court,
Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, spent over N500m between January and October
2016 despite his total annual legitimate earnings, including his
allowances being N24m.
This was disclosed in a document
prepared by the prosecuting counsel, Mr. Charles Adeogun-Philips,
summarising the case of the prosecution against the Justice of the
Supreme Court, who was on November 21, 2016, arraigned before a Federal
High Court in Abuja.
During his arraignment, Ngwuta pleaded
not guilty to 16 counts, including money laundering and others relating
to fraudulent obtainment of multiple passports.
The trial judge, Justice John Tsoho, adjourned till January 16, 2017, for the prosecution to start calling its witnesses.
The document, prepared in anticipation
that the prosecution would be allowed to open its case on Wednesday,
stated that the case brought against the judge, “chronicles corrupt
enrichment, violations of the money laundering laws of our land,
passport fraud, and an attempt to obstruct justice by a judicial
officer”.
The prosecution alleged that from the
N500m, the apex court justice transferred dollar equivalent of N313m
cash in $100 bills to a building contractor within the period of nine
months between January and September, 2016, to “develop several landed
properties” for him.
It explained that earlier in 2015, the
defendant, within a period of one month, made various cash payments
totalling $180,000 to the building contractor.
It also alleged that during the raid on
the defendant’s Abuja house by the operatives of the Department of State
Services on October 7, 2016, total sums of N38.358m, $319,596 and
£25,915 were found in his possession.
According to the prosecution, the
Justice of the apex court gave no satisfactory explanation for the huge
sums of money found in his possession.
Prosecutor’s document
The document partly read, “Another
witness will testify before this court that the defendant’s total annual
income, including allowances in 2016 amounted to approximately
N24,000,000.
“It beggars belief how a serving public
servant could have under his direct control, in a 10-month period
spanning between January and October alone, cash sums in excess of
N500,000,000.”
Adeogun-Philips said proposed
prosecution witnesses would also appear in court to testify over the
huge funds found in possession of the defendant, among other
allegations.
The document stated, “In the course of
this trial, the Federal Republic of Nigeria will adduce evidence from a
building contractor engaged by the defendant, as to how in a period of
nine months, spanning between January and September 2016, he received
the total sum of N313,000,000 from the defendant in cash, which was paid
to him mostly in $100 bills to develop landed properties for the
defendant.
“This court will also hear from another
witness, how in his capacity as an architect engaged by the defendant in
2015, he received from the defendant within a period of one month,
various cash payments totalling $180,000.
“Investigators will further tell this
honourable court how during a search at his residence on October 7,
2016, cash totalling: (1) N35,358,000 (2) $319,956 and £25,915 were
found in the defendant’s possession.”
The prosecution alleged that the
defendant had betrayed “the judicial oath of allegiance to discharge his
duties as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, faithfully, with
honesty, and to the best of his abilities”, which he swore to on June
23, 2011 when he was promoted to the Supreme Court bench.
The prosecuting lawyer also stated that
he would lead evidence on how the defendant, on October 9, 2016, a day
after being granted administrative bail by the DSS in Abuja, prevailed
on a potential prosecution witness on the telephone to help him to move
some bags containing title documents of landed assets and N27m cash away
from his house in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.
Adeogun-Philips stated, “The court will,
in the course of this trial, hear how the defendant, having been
confronted with the maze of evidence against him, following the search
of his official residence in Abuja and his subsequent arrest on October
7, 2016, and oblivious of being under DSS surveillance, prevailed on a
potential prosecution witness following his release on administrative
bail on October 9, 2016, to remove from his bathroom at his private
residence in Ebonyi State several bags containing several land title
documents and the sum of N27m cash.
“The evidence will also reveal how the
defendant ordered the same witness to remove three luxury vehicles from
his residence following which the said vehicles were subsequently
concealed at various locations in Ebonyi State in an attempt to obstruct
ongoing investigations in this case.”
He also said the evidence to be led by
the prosecution would reveal “how the defendant, deliberately misled the
Nigeria Immigration Service into issuing him four valid passports – two
diplomatic and two standard Nigerian passports – having previously
declared to the said service on oath that he had lost two of these
passports”.
“The defendant was later found with all
four passports during a search at his residence on October 7, 2016,” the
prosecution stated.
Adeogun-Philips added, “It is for these
reasons that the defendant is standing trial before this honourable
court today. By the end of this trial, I am confident that the
prosecution would have established beyond reasonable doubt that the
defendant is indeed guilty of the offences charged.”
The prosecution was scheduled to call
its first set of witnesses against Justice Ngwuta on Wednesday, but the
defendant, through his lawyer, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), begged the trial
judge, Justice John Tsoho, to further adjourn the case to afford him
(Ngwuta) more time to prepare for his defence.
He said his client was eager to defend himself, “But unfortunately we still have a lot to do to be sufficiently ready.”
He cited section 36(6) of the
constitution which he said entitled any person accused of criminal
offences to be given the “time and facilities” to defend himself.
He said, “There are some documents we
still need to access from the prosecution. Under our constitution the
defendant should be given enough time.
“I urge your lordship to direct the
prosecution to avail us of all the documents they intend to use so that
we can be fully prepared.”
Prosecutor opposes adjournment
But Adeogun-Philips, who said a lot of
resources had been expended to bring three of the prosecution witnesses
to court on Wednesday, opposed the application for adjournment.
He opposed the application on the
grounds that both parties had on November 21, after the arraignment of
the defendant, consented to the commencement of the trial on Wednesday.
Insisting that all the documents the
prosecution would use had been front-loaded and served on the defendant
along with the charges, he added that the application for adjournment
also violated section 396(3) of the Administration of Criminal Justice
Act, “which provides for day-to-day trial upon arraignment until the
conclusion of trial.”
He also said the adjournment would also violate the provisions of the court’s Practice Direction 2013.
He suggested that if the court was
willing to grant the adjournment, the prosecution should be allowed to
call its witness and give the defence another date to cross-examine the
witness.
Defence lawyer seeks adjournment
Responding on point of law, Agabi said
day-to-day trial was impracticable and that under section 396(4) of
ACJA, the defendant was entitled to seek adjournment five times
throughout the period of the trial in the event of the impracticability
of day-to-day trial.
But ruling, Justice Tsoho agreed with
the defence lawyer on the grounds that the provision of the constitution
overrides the provision of the ACJA.
He said that the time and facilities
which the provision of Section 36(6) of the constitution provides must
be afforded the accused person which could extend to “emotional and
psychological” readiness.
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