Alleged N2.7bn Fraud: Court rejects document tendered by Hadi Sirika

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 interim.

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′.

The court rejected the document when another defence lawyer, Sanusi Musa, a SAN representing the defendant, sought to tender it.

After listening to the cross-examination of the fourth prosecution witness, the judge adjourned till 15 November for the continuation of the trial.

The fourth prosecution witness, Isaiah Yusuf, testified on 2 and 5 July.

Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Mr Numa, the witness said Al-Duraq Global Investment Limited was not listed as a bidder in the request brought to BPP.

Therefore, Mr Numa prayed the court to subpoena a witness to produce a document contradicting the witness’ evidence.

EFCC accused Fatima, a co-defendant and Mr Sirika’s daughter, who works at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), and her husband, Jalal Sule Hamma, also a co-defendant and staff member of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, of holding “indirectly private interests in the contract for the Apron Extension at the Katsina Airport” for the sum of almost N1.5 billion. This was said to violate section 12 of the ICPC Act.

The couple, according to EFCC, also had in their possession N1.3 billion allegedly traced to Mr Sirika as “proceeds of criminal conducts” in the form of gratification.

NAN