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.... ....   Home  |  Cover Stories  |  National Newsreel  |  Politics  |  Business  |  Sports  |  World  | Contact  | Advert Rates  Towards a better life for the people Search The Archives   Cover Stories National News South West Niger Delta South East North Politics Business Sports World Viewpoints Features   COVER STORIES Missing ship: Witness vanishes from trial venue By Emma Nnadozie Wednesday, December 01, 2004 LAGOS — THE trial of three Naval chiefs in respect of the missing oil bunkering vessel, MT African Pride, took a different dimension yesterday after it was discovered that a Naval rating billed to appear as a prosecution witness was no where to be found shortly before he was to testify. The rating, Jonas Atan, had during past proceedings testified and admitted collecting N250,000.00 as his share of the proceeds from the deal. But yesterday he slipped away from the officers mess in Ikoyi, venue of the trial, the heavy presence of naval police officers at the venue, notwithstanding. The disappearance of the rating was noticed around 5.15pm when he was called upon to testify. Naval police officers including the court provost frantically looked for him everywhere in the compound without success. He was not found even after the court proceedings were halted for over 10 minutes but when one of his friends got him on telephone, he said he was somewhere on Lagos Island and could not show up for his testimony. This development made the court to adjourn till Friday while Naval police were directed to fish him out for the next adjournment date. Earlier in the day, an attempt by the prosecution to introduce another charge against Rear Admiral Antonio Bob-Manuel was thrown out by the court. The Judge Advocate of the court, Colonel John Audu, who was advising the court on the argument of both prosecution and defence on either to throw the charge out or retain it, said the charge was not properly framed hence the court should dismiss it. The charge which was framed as negligence to cause the loss of 11,300 metric tonnes of crude oil entrusted in the care of the accused officer and valued at N500 million was made under section 68 of the Armed Forces Act Cap 20 Law of the Federation of Nigeria. The defence counsel of Rear Admiral Bob-Manuel, Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN), and Colonel Bello Fadile (rtd) jointly called on the court to throw out the charge out.   Home  |  Cover Stories  |  National Newsreel  |  Politics  |  Business  |  Sports  |  World  | Contact  | Advert Rates © 1998- 2004. Vanguard Media Ltd.

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