BY AYO ESAN
THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, on Monday, re-arraigned a former Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, alongside his former Commissioner of Finance, Omodachi Okolobia, before Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Both were docked on amended 11-count charges, bordering on theft, criminal breach of trust, illegal award of contracts and money laundering to the tune of N3.1 billion.
One of the charges read, “That you Gabriel Torwua Suswam and Omodachi Okolobia, while being Benue State Governor and Commissioner of Finance in Benue State, respectively, between 8th August and 30th October, 2014 in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did procure Elixir Securities Limited and Elixir Investment Partners Limited to transfer an aggregate sum of N3,111,008,018.51 (Three Billion, One Hundred and Eleven Million, Eight Thousand and Eighteen Naira, Fifty-one Kobo), belonging to Benue State Government to the account of Abubakar Umar (trading under the name and style of Fanffash Resources), who has no contractual relationship with Benue State Government, which sum you reasonably ought to have known to be the proceeds of unlawful activity to wit: theft and criminal breach of trust, and which sum forms part of the sum of N9,411,708,009.51 (Nine Billion, Four Hundred and Eleven, Seven Hundred and Eight Thousand Nine Naira, Fifty-one Kobo) realised from the sales of shares, owned by Benue State Government and Benue Investment and Properties Company Limited, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 15 (2)(b) and 18(c) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended in 2012 and punishable under Section(15)(3) of the same Act.”
The duo pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Monday’s arraignment of the defendants followed the Appeal Court’s ruling that the trial of the defendants should be reverted to Justice Mohammed’s court from that of Justice Okon Abang, whom the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court had reassigned the case to, after the defendants alleged prejudice against them by Justice Mohammed.
With return of the case to the first trial judge, prosecution counsel, Adewale Atolagbe, urged the court to direct all counsels on the matter to work with the court’s registry for the relisting of the exhibits that were already presented in the court before the transfer and for all exhibits not earlier presented to be withdrawn and returned to the prosecution.
In objecting to the application, Suswam’s counsel, Adedeji Adedayo, told the court that the Appeal Court directed that the case file be returned to court and not to the custody of the prosecution.
He added that the sorting of the documents could be done by the registry of the court or exhibit keepers, while Okolobia’s counsel Audu Anuga, argued that it was not the business of the defence to help regularise issues pertaining to evidence the prosecution hopes to tender.
In the end, Justice Mohammed directed the court registry to go through the records and sort out the exhibits admitted by the court and make sure that they were marked accordingly.
He adjourned the matter till December 15, 2020, for continuation of trial.
