FORMER
chairman of the Ad hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Regime, Honourable Farouk
Lawan and the secretary of the Committee, Boniface Emenalo, will on May 2 know
whether their trial in the alleged $620,000 subsidy scam levelled against
them will commence or not.
The trial which was meant to
commence before an Abuja High Court on Wednesday could not due to an
application brought by the accused persons challenging the jurisdiction of the
court and asking it to quash the charges of receiving $620,000 from an oil
magnate, Femi Otedola to doctor the report of the committee in favour of Zenon
Oil and Gas Limited.
Counsel to the accused persons, Mr
Rickey Tarfa, SAN, submitted that the court ought not to have granted the
application for leave to prefer the charges because the prosecution failed to
provide adequate materials necessary for the court to exercise discretion to
grant the application.
The trial judge, Justice Mudashiru
Oniyangi, after listening to both parties fixed May 2 to deliver ruling
on the application.
In his argument to quash the
charges, Tarfa asked the court to discharge the accused persons since no prima
facie case had been made against them, adding that the foundation of the
case against them was not legally laid.
He added that prosecutor
failed to comply with the provisions of Section 155 (1)(b) of the Criminal
Procedure Code which required that statements of witnesses be attached to the
application to prefer charges.
In his response, prosecution
counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN asked the court to dismiss the
application, even as he described it as a tactic to waste the time of the
court, vexatious and an abuse of court process.
Sources: The tribune
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