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 Daily
Independent Online.
* Tuesday, July 06, 2004.
Ibori
not listed in Bwari court records
By Tony
Eluemunor
Abuja Bureau Chief
and Rotimi
Fadeyi
Senior Correspondent, Abuja
At the resumed hearing of the suit filed against
Delta State Governor James Ibori on Monday, before Justice Husseini
Murktar of an Abuja High Court, the criminal complaint book and the
criminal record book of the Bwari Upper Area Court in September 1995, now
admitted as exhibits, showed that Ibori’s name is missing.
Although Awwal Yusuf who presided over the court during the
period claimed that the records had been tampered with, he could not
clearly state the charge number of the case in which he alleged that the
governor was involved. He mentioned conflicting numbers.
Yusuf, cross examined by Ibori’s lead counsel Milton Paul
Ohwovoriole (SAN), could not prove that the governor appeared in any of
the five First Information Reports (FIRs) registered in his court on
September 28, 1995.
The day’s proceedings began with the judge calling for the Chief
Registrar of the Federal Territory (FCT) High Court, Aisha Abubakar
Ibrahim. She had been subpoenaed to produce the criminal record book and
the criminal complaint book of the Bwari Upper Area Court.
As she stepped into the witness box, Gani Fawehinmi objected,
saying Yusuf had not
concluded the evidence he began last Wednesday. “It is not proper to be
taking witnesses in between a trial. This is trial within a trial” he
said.
Ohwovoriole interjected that Ibrahim is only a government
official coming to tender documents and has nothing to do with the case.
But Fawenhinmi insisted that because the documents are in her
custody does not make them authentic.
Ibori’s counsel then said: “My Lord, they must be tendered. Why
should we hide judgement from justice? They must be tendered because my
learned friend has referred to them in his claim”.
After a long-drawn argument Mukhtar allowed Ibrahim to tender the
documents.
The registrar, while answering Ibori’s lawyer’s questions, said
this “is the court record book of Upper Area Court, Bwari in the custody
of the registrar of the court in Bwari before I called for them. She said
the same about the criminal complaint book of the court”.
The court record is where proceedings are recorded while the
criminal compliant book is for recording the charges and the parties
involved in cases.
“When did the two documents get into your custody”, Fawenhinmi
asked Ibrahim. She replied: “There was a time the election petition
tribunal subpoenaed the FCT chief judge to produce the two documents”.
Fawenhinmi asked for the exact dates they got into her custody,
she said “about two months ago”. She gave the date as 15 March 2004.
She explained that the two documents came into her custody when
the Election Petitions Tribunal requested for them.
Ibrahim said she got the document from the registrar of the court
on March 15, 2003, about a month after the Supreme Court ruled that the
case against Ibori be retried.
When asked by Fawehinmi whether the documents were “authentic”,
she said: “Since I got them from the court and they are court documents,
they remain authentic. If some parts were removed, I will not call the
documents unauthentic because they remain court records but I will say
that the authentic documents were tampered with. If there was any removal
it was before the documents came into my possession”.
Fawehnhimi insisted on knowing when she collected the documents;
but Ibori’s counsel countered that “there was no need for that. Yusuf
himself has already said that some pages were missing, so why bother the
registrar about that?”
Below is the cross examination of the chief registrar (CR) and
prosecution witness I (PWI) Yusuf by Milton Ohwovoriole:
Milton: Tell the court your names
C.R: Aisha Abubakar
Ibrahim
Milton: What do you do?
CR: I am the
Chief Registrar High Court of FCT.
Milton: You were subpoenaed to produce two documents:
1. Criminal Complaint Book of the Upper Area Court Bwari.
2. Court Record Book, Books of Upper Area Court Bwari. Do you
have copies of the subpoena?
CR: Yes
Milton: Ask
to tender the subpoena.
Gani: (Objects to the approach adopted by Milton). This is a
trial within trial.
Judge: Documents should be put in evidence.
Milton: How
did you come about these documents? They were in the custody of the
Registrar Upper Area Court, Bwari before I called for them. This is the
criminal complaint book, also in the custody of Registrar Upper Area
Court. They have been in my custody since then. They were produced from
my office this morning.
Milton: I
urge the court to admit these documents.
Gani: When did they get in
your custody?
CR: There was a
time the Election Tribunal subpoenaed the chief judge to produce these
documents before the tribunal sitting in Abuja. I cannot remember the
date, it was about two months ago.
Milton: Look
at page 877 of the record book, look at page 877-889.
CR: They are
here.
Milton: I
seek to tender the record book of the Upper Area Court, Bwari of 28th
September 1995, page 877. Continues from page 885 to page 889 of 28th
September 1995. Criminal Complaint book page 439 contains CR 71-74, Page
441 contains CR 75-83 seeks to tender this document particularly pages
referred to.
Judge: Criminal
complaint book and record book admitted and marked Exhibit “C” and “D”.
Gani: You did not make any
entry into the two books.
CR: No I did not.
Gani: On a day you cannot
remember, you were asked officially to keep the two records.
CR: I was asked
to call for them and to tender them before the Election Tribunal.
Gani: You cannot testify to
the authenticity of the entries in the record books.
Milton: Objection,
witness is not here to give evidence.
Gani: Are the documents
comprehensive and complete?
CR: They are
authentic, official documents gotten from the court. If pages were
removed I would not say the document is not authentic but has been
tampered with.
Gani: Please endeavour to
get the date.
CR: I need to
check court records (diary). The pages were not torn when they were with
me.
Judge: (Stands case down for 30 minutes).
On resumption: (CR replied) 15th March, 2004.
Gani: We don’t know under
what class to put the registrar’s testimony. Is she a plaintiff’s witness
or the defendant’s witness?.
CR: I was
invited by the defence
Judge: Chief
Registrar is discharged
Milton: Other
witnesses should be asked to leave the court.
Gani: We have no other
witness here. It is Ibori who is our next witness. We subpoenaed him but
he is not here.
(PW1 continues cross-examination)
Milton: What
is the process of initiating a First Information Report (FIR) in court.
PW1: It
comes from the police, when it gets to us we record it and give it a
number. It is assigned to a judge and a prosecutor reads it.
Milton: In
summary trial CR No. 81/95 what was the procedure followed on 28th
September 1995.
PW1: Prosecutor
brought six FIR. FIR 81/95 was read out in court by prosecutor Corporal
Musa Sambo. The accused had a lawyer, Mr. N. Nnakwe. Accused pleaded
guilty and his counsel pleaded for leniency since he is a first offender.
At the end of the day, we imposed a fine of N500 on each court of two
counts.
Milton: It
is correct that you signed at the end of proceedings, which you did in this case.
PW1: Yes.
Milton: Are
you familiar with the criminal Complaint Book Exhibit ‘C’.
PW1: It
is usually in the registry.
Milton: Is
it not part of the record of your court?
PW1: Yes,
it is.
Milton: If
you see Exhibit ‘C’ would you recognise it?
PW1: Yes.
Milton: Is
that it?
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