THE Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Maitama, Abuja, on Thursday, rejected a document tendered by a former Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, who is standing trial on corruption charges.
The judge, Sylvanus Oriji, refused to admit the document as an exhibit after the prosecution team of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) objected to its admissibility.
The EFCC is prosecuting Mr Sirika, his daughter Fatima, Jalal Hamma, and Al-Duraq Investment Limited on six counts of abuse of office and contract fraud.
Mr Sirika, the aviation minister in the then-President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, was accused of abusing his office by awarding contracts to a company in which his daughter and her husband had interests.
The prosecution said some of the defendants’ offences were contrary to sections 12 and 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000 and section 17 (b) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004.
EFCC also said their other offences contravened section 315 of the Penal Code Act and were punishable under the same sections.
Ruling on the admissibility of a document sought to be tendered by a defence lawyer, Michael Numa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), representing Mr Sirika and Al-Duraq Investment Limited, the judge held that the objection by EFCC was sustained.
The judge noted that the contention was whether Al-Duraq Investment Limited was not approved by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) for contracts. EFCC’s fourth prosecution witness, through whom the defence sought to tender the disputed documents, said the BPP did not approve the company for contracts.
He also said the court was to determine whether the document could be tendered through the witness for cross-examination.
” It is commonly said that before a document can be tendered through a witness by the adverse party during cross-examination, the cross-examiner must establish a link or nexus between the witness and the document sought to be tendered.
”In the instant case, the cross-examiner did not even show the witness the document sought to be tendered.”
The judge noted that a true copy of the document in contention was subsequently shown to the witness, who responded that he did not know it.
”What is sought to be tendered today is another genre of the document that is the original.
”Moreover, no link or nexus was established between the witness and the document as a condition for its admissibility through him.
”None of the cases cited dealt with the scenario in this case.
”It is remarkably different from the case before me. The objection is hereby sustained.
“The letter dated 6 June 2022 from BPP to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Aviation, is rejected and marked ‘Rejected 1’.”
