A former Minister of Justice, Bello Adoke, one of those accused and charged with fraud in the OPL245 scam, also referred to as Malabu scandal, had petitioned the police and accused those behind the petitions resulting in his prosecution for corruption and money laundering that they circulated fabricated evidence against him to unduly incriminate him in the multi-million dollar scandal.
Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Monday threatened to strike out the case bordering on cyberstalking preferred against Chairman of Human and Environmental Development Agenda, (HEDA Resource Centre), Olanrewaju Suraju, by the Nigerian government over the failure of the prosecution to serve the defendant and court with the proof of evidence.
A former Minister of Justice, Bello Adoke, one of those accused and charged with fraud in the OPL245 scam, also referred to as Malabu scandal, had petitioned the police and accused those behind the petitions resulting in his prosecution for corruption and money laundering that they circulated fabricated evidence against him to unduly incriminate him in the multi-million dollar scandal.
The matter which was scheduled for arraignment today Monday could not proceed owing to the infractions on the part of the prosecution counsel, Abdulraheem Shuaibu, who failed to serve the defendant and court with proof of evidence.
The defence counsel, Muiz Banire, while objecting to the charge preferred against the defendant argued that it was incompetent on the ground that the proof of evidence was not attached to the charge.
He added that proof of evidence was a mandatory constitutional provision which form the basis upon which the defendant would use to prepare his defence but was not part of the charge upon which the defendant is standing trial.
He also argued that they had filed a formal notice of preliminary objection and application for bail since October 15, 2021 but the prosecution refused to respond.
He said it would be difficult for the defendant to proceed and take his plea since the prosecution had not made available those items.
But after going through the court records, the trial judge noticed that there was no “proof of evidence” in the case file forcing the judge to insist that the prosecution must provide them before the case could go on
“You said you have filed it but as long as I don't have it in my record, it has not been filed and if they are not ready to do the needful, I will strike out the charge,” Nyako said.
The judge therefore directed the prosecution to serve the defendant with proof of evidence and respond to the notice of preliminary objection and bail application filed by the defendant.
She therefore adjourned the case to February 7 2022 for hearing.
It would be recalled that the police could not found any proof of forgery in the evidence used to expose Adoke's corruption but went ahead to charge HEDA Chairman for cyberstalking.
The Inspector-General of Police Monitoring Unit had in April 2021 detained at the Force headquarters Suraju for alleged sharing of media report on $1 billion Malabu oil deal.
JP Morgan Chase Bank had also released fresh documents which indicted Adoke and was admitted as evidence which including an electronic mail sent by him on June 21, 2011.
The bank released the documents to a United Kingdom court, the High Court of Justice, Business and Property Courts of England and Wales, after investigation was done by the Special Fraud Office, London, under Director Lisa Osofosky.
The documents confirm that contrary to Adoke’s claim of forgery against the NGOs and Italian prosecutors, the documents emanated from JP Morgan and UK court.
It would be recalled that JP Morgan Chase Bank was accused by the Nigerian government to have sent $801 million to the bank account of Malabu in Nigeria without appropriate authorisation from Nigeria.
Adoke and six others are standing trial over alleged fraud in the oil deal.