A High Court, sitting in Abuja, Monday rejected uncertified documents sought to be tendered by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) in the trial of ex-Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Babachir Lawal and others.
Lawal is standing trial alongside his brother Hamidu, a director of Rholavision Engineering Limited; an employee of the company, Sulaiman Abubakar; and the Managing Director of Josmon Technologies Limited, Apeh Monday.
They are facing a 10-count charge bordering on conspiracy and fraud, according to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Also facing the charge are two companies, Rholavision Engineering Limited and Josmon Technologies Limited.
Justice Jude Okeke, while ruling on the admissibilty of the documents, held that the essence of certification was to ensure accuracy of documents tendered in evidence.
He said that although the prosecutor attached the uncertified documents into the bundle of original documents ”It is the duty of the court to examine them to know whether they are admissible”.
”I have examined the bundle of the documents and it consisted of original documents with attachments of uncertified ones, a total of 17 documents.
”The documents are bearing different dates besides this it’s also numbered as different exhibits, the mere act that there are stapled together does not make them one document,” he held.
Okeke said, for a public document to be admissible, it must accord with the provisions of section 104 of the Evidence Act, 2011.
He then admitted seven original documents and rejected 10 uncertified non-original ones.
The judge adjourned the case to June 18 for contuination of trial.
On May 23, Mr O. Uzor, councel for fifth defendant, objected when the prosecuting counsel, Mr Ufom Uket, sought to tender the documents.
There are vouchers raised by PINE for payments to both Josmon Technologies Limited and Rholavision Engineering Limited respectively, through the first prosecution witness (PW1), Hamza Adamu.
Uzor stated that while the vouchers were in the original copies, the other documents attached to them were photocopies, which were not certified.
According to him, the documents were public documents and that there were procedures for tendering such, as contained in Section 104 of the Evidence Act.
Responding to this, Uket informed the court that the vouchers were in the original form, adding that memos raised on the vouchers were attached with the vouchers.
He prayed the court to admit them, saying that each of the vouchers and the attachments were to be seen as one document.
The EFCC accused the former SGF of benefiting illegally from the approval of N544,119,925.36, for the removal of invasive plant species and simplified irrigation.