During Wednesday’s trial, the court dismissed the objection against the admissibility of Onyegbula’s statements made to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Counsel to Onyegbula, E.C. Ikeji, had objected to the application of the prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, to tender her statements dated February 13, 15, and 17, 2012, as well as May 2, 2102.
Testifying as the first defence witness, Ikeji’s client who is a former cashier in the Police Pension Office, had in the course of the trial challenged the admissibility of the statements, thus necessitating the need for the trial-within-trial.
The defence counsel had also argued that the statements were made “involuntarily” by the witness, and so could not be tendered in court.
Jacobs, however, countered Ikeji’s argument, citing Section 104 of the Evidence Act.
“My lord, recall that the trial-within-trial is a separate trial and I need to tender the documents for the purpose of the trial-within-trial because that is the subject matter of the trial-within-trial,” he was quoted as saying in a statement from the EFCC.
“We must prove whether the document which is the statement was taken voluntarily or not. My learned colleague can only argue on the procedure that the statements were taken and not the statements themselves; there is a need to look critically at the content of the documents in a bid to determine the voluntariness.”
After listening to the arguments, the trial judge went through the statements in contention and admitted them as Exhibits D1 to D5, respectively.
The case was consequently adjourned till October 9, 2018.
Dangabar and Onyegbula are standing trial along with Atiku Kigo, Ahmed Wada, Sani Zira, Uzoma Attang and Christian Madubuke.
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