During cross examination by
defense counsel Mike Ozhekome SAN, who directed the witness to read from his
extra judicial statement made to the EFCC on the 11th of March.
When the trial of Babalele
son in-law of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar resumed Wednesday, the EFCC
witness, Bashir Mohammed, recapped how he delivered the sum of $140,000
directly to someone at the Obasanjo library in Ogun State.
”I collected the dollars
cash from Dan Asabe and I called Abdulahi and he told me to take the money to
Ogun state to Obasanjo’s library. “When I got to the library, I met a man who
asked if am Bashir and I said yes. He asked where is the message from Abdulahi and
I gave him the money.
“I don’t know the name of
the person I gave the money but I can identify the office”, the witness said.
Mr Ozhekome, while
addressing the court, said the defense had established from the portion of
extra judicial statements it asked the witness to read that they are
contradictory to his witness in court yesterday.
“Yesterday you said you
gave Obasanjo $140,000 personally in his house but in this your statement
today, you wrote that you gave the money to a man in the library that you don’t
even know his name. ”
“You told the court
yesterday that you changed N50,400,000 that was transferred to you but in your
statement we have seen N53million and N52.5million that was transferred to you.
”
The defence sought to
re-admit the statement of the witness as evidence stating that it had complied
with the requirements said to be lacking in a ruling delivered by Justice Aneke
at the beginning of proceedings today which stated that “the defense ought to
have laid enough foundation for the admissibility of the evidence before
seeking to tender it so the objection of the prosecution is upheld. The court
advises the defense to lay proper foundation before seeking to admit it in
evidence. ”
In objecting, the
prosecuting counsel Rotimi Oyedepo said the court had already ruled on the
admissibility of the statement and trying to readmit same document amounts to
relitigation of an already determined matter.
He also maintained that the
witness had identified different statements made to the EFCC but the defense is
only seeking to tender one while withholding others.
Responding, Mr Ozhekome
said the prosecution cannot instruct the defense on how to conduct its case.
He also maintained that the
defense was choosing to tender the statement because it directly mentioned the
defendant, stating that other statements had nothing to do with the defendant
or his case.
Mr Ozhekome tendered five
of the statements identified by the witness.
However, Oyedepo insisted
that the statement of the witness taken on the 9th of August be tendered also
claiming it explained all the discrepancies in the other statements.
In objection, Mr Ozhekome
said the defense had not read the statement and had only been working with the
five statements duly identified by the witness.
At this point, Justice
Aneke adjourned the case till 29th and 30th of January 2020; 12th and 13th of
February 2020 for ruling on the admissibility of the 6th statement of Mr
Mohammed and continuation of cross examination and trial.
Mr Babalele is being tried
on a two-count charge of laundering $140,000.
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