TheNewsGuru

Tag: Evidence

  • Destruction of evidence: Metuh knows fate on May 31

    Destruction of evidence: Metuh knows fate on May 31

    An FCT High Court on Monday fixed May 31 for ruling on the no-case submission filed by Olisa Metuh, a former PDP spokesperson, accused of destruction of evidence.

    Mr Metuh was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on a two-count charge bordering on alleged destruction of evidence.

    The case which was before Justice Ishaq Bello, was adjourned until May 31, with consent of all counsel as the court did not sit on the matter, though all counsel, as well as Mr Metuh, were present.

    The case was earlier adjourned until March 7, then April 23 for ruling on Mr Metuh’s no- case submission.

    Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), counsel to Mr Metuh’s had on October 10, 2017, told the court that they would enter a no-case submission at the close of the prosecution’s case

    Arguing the no-case submission, Mr Ikpeazu had told the court that the prosecution had not established any case to warrant the defendant to be called to enter his defence.

    He said that the application was pursuant to the provisions of Sections 302 and 357 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act.

    He added that the defendant had a constitutional liberty and could not be prosecuted where he either refused to make a statement or withdraw any part of his writing in the course of making a statement.

    He said that the defendant had a right to cancel any part of his statement voluntarily.

    He reminded the court that the charge by EFCC was that Mr Metuh destroyed his statement and obstructed the EFCC officials by willfully tearing his statement.

    Mr Ikpeazu added that a piece of paper not signed did not qualify as a statement by the defendant, and urged the court to discharge and acquit the defendant.

    The prosecuting counsel Sylvanus Tahir, urged the court to establish whether or not a prima facie case had been made against the defendant

    He added that cancellation was different from tearing, which was obstruction, and urged the court to call upon the defendant to enter his defence.

     

  • Corruption: Ignore Wike’s rants, he has no evidence against me – Amaechi tells supporters

    Corruption: Ignore Wike’s rants, he has no evidence against me – Amaechi tells supporters

    Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi has insisted that Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has no evidence to prove his allegations of corruption against him.

    He maintained that he ran a transparent administration, devoid of spurious acts and practices, which his successor (Wike) has been attributing to him.

    Amaechi, a former chair of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), in a statement on Tuesday by his Media Office, declared that his former chief of staff and Director-General of Amaechi Re-election Campaign Organisation in 2011, was forging and concocting documents to defame, disparage and vilify him, in his desperate and failed bid to portray him as corrupt.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that Governor Nyesom Wike, while addressing the Council of Traditional Rulers in Port Harcourt on Monday, claimed he had evidence of Amaechi’s corrupt acts as governor.

    Amaechi said: “Wike has nothing, we mean absolutely nothing concrete to prove his fabricated claims. However, we are aware, as a matter of fact, it is now public knowledge that Wike has been forging and distorting a cache of documents in his increasingly frantic efforts to denigrate Amaechi. This forgery and contortion commenced immediately Wike assumed office as governor and it is ongoing.

    “Nigerians were shocked a few days back when Livingstone Wechie, the young man Wike used to accuse Amaechi of corruption and write false and frivolous petitions to the National Assembly, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) etc., confessed freely and openly, that all the documents he used to wrongfully portray Amaechi as corrupt when he governed Rivers State, were phony, forged documents given to him by Wike’s Rivers State Government House.”

    “It is ludicrous and appalling that Wike is still talking about his credibility-bereft Commission of Enquiry, when Livingstone Wechie also admitted that the forged documents were what were used as the template, the basis for the Justice Omereji-led Judicial Commission of Enquiry, an inquisition panel Wike set up early in his administration to witch-hunt, malign and persecute Amaechi.

    “Nigerians are now accustomed to Wike’s shameful charade whenever he says he has ‘evidence’ against Amaechi. How can we forget in a hurry when Wike outrageously claimed he had evidence to prove Amaechi’s ownership of the $43 million Ikoyi money and luxury apartment? In spite of all the noise Wike made, all his over-the-top political dramatisation of Amaechi ownership of the Ikoyi money, Wike could not even go to court to claim the money with his so-called evidence. Wike has suddenly gone deaf and dumb on the Ikoyi money, many months after his seven-day ultimatum for the Federal Government to give him the money or face the mother of all legal actions.

    “How can anyone take a character like Wike seriously, especially when he says he has evidence against Amaechi? How can a governor talk so recklessly and irresponsibly?”

    The Transportation minister also stated that he will continue to remind Rivers people that his former aide’s (Wike’s) antics were a clear attempt to distract and divert attention from his mindless plundering of the resources of the state and spate of his (Wike’s) induced insecurity in Rivers.

    He said: “Wike must realise that every lie has an expiry date. Rivers people are tired and sick of Wike’s fake stories of ‘Amaechi this, Amaechi that’, every day.

    “Rather, the people (of Rivers State) want to know what happened to all the billions of naira Wike has collected from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), Paris Club refund, internally-generated revenue and the funds he borrowed.”

     

     

  • We have overwhelming evidence of Amaechi’s corrupt acts as Rivers Governor – Wike

    Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has declared that the evidence of corruption against the immediate past Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi is so overwhelming that the Minister of Transportation admitted to them publicly.

    Addressing the 106th Quarterly Meeting of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers in Port Harcourt on Monday, Governor Wike said that Amaechi admitted paying $39million for a non-existent Justice Karibi Whyte Mega Specialist Hospital.

    He added that the Former Governor confessed publicly that he sold the State’s Gas Turbines, which the immediate past administration diverted the funds.

    Governor Wike said: “All the documents that proved Amaechi’s corrupt acts are authentic. We never forged documents. The former governor himself admitted that he paid out $39million to Clinotech, without a single block laid anywhere. Is that a document he claims was forged. Where is the Hospital?

    “He has agreed in different interviews that he sold the state gas turbines for $309million. Convert $309million United States dollars to naira and you will understand the level of fraud. Amaechi left only $204,000 in the state account.

    “The bank statements of the pattern of withdrawals from that account are there for all to see. Can that be forged? The dates and amounts withdrawn are clearly written”.

    The governor berated the Minister of Transportation for engaging in the blackmail of the Supreme Court because his appeal is pending before the Apex Court over the establishment of the Rivers State Judicial Commission of Inquiry.

    “There is no time that he loses a case without blackmailing the Judiciary. He feels that the only way he can do it is to blackmail the Supreme Court. You cannot play politics with everything “.

    On the use of hotels for electoral fraud, the governor warned that any hotel that opens its facility for electoral fraud and malpractice will lose its operational certificate of occupancy.

    He said: “Any hotel that is used to rig elections, that hotel’s certificate of occupancy will be withdrawn. I will not all that anymore “.

    He regretted that the Former Rivers State Governor has continued to work against the interest of the State, refusing to use his position as a Minister to attract benefits to the people.

    Speaking further, he warned traditional rulers against working with armed gangs to cause insecurity in their communities.

    Earlier, the Chairman of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers and Amayanabo of Opobo, King Dandeson Jaja commended the governor for the commencement of the reconstruction of 175 public schools across the state.

    He appealed to the governor to set up a process to check the sale of illicit drugs in the state.

  • Saraki: Buhari fighting political enemies with no evidence to tender – Fayose

    …says he earlier predicted Saraki’s victory at the CCT

    Governor Ayodele Fayose Ekiti State has hailed the triumph of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) as another victory by Nigerians over tyranny, saying; “I am happy that I predicted that the CCT will absolve the Senate President in my 2017 predictions and it has come to pass.”

    Governor Fayose who called attention to number eight of his 22 predictions for year 2017, said; “I said it categorically that the Code of Conduct Tribunal will absolve Senate President Bukola Saraki and today, the prediction came to pass.”

    Reacting to the CCT judgment discharging Senator Saraki through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor said the judgment was another lesson for the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) federal government that criminal cases are not won on the pages of newspapers.

    He congratulated the Senate President, urging him to see the victory as a challenge to him and the entire members of the National Assembly to always stand up to defend the rule of law and fundamental rights of Nigerians.

    The governor said; “I have maintained that the government of President Buhari is not fighting any corruption. Rather, what is being done is hiding under anti-corruption fight to persecute, humiliate, harass and malign perceived political enemies.

    “They go about trying their perceived political foes in the media, with the aim of destroying their names when they do not have any evidence that can sustain court trial and it is for this reason that they have been losing corruption cases.

    “Look at all the noise they made when they started Senator Saraki’s case, it was as if he will be sent to jail the following week. But when it was time for them to prove their allegations, they could not.

    “Even the case of the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), that they said stole $2.1 billion arms money and that destructive weapons capable of disrupting the peace of any city in Nigeria were found in his possession, why are they the ones seeking for secret trial while Dasuki that they accused is insisting on open trial?

    “Up till today, they have not brought any evidence against Dasuki. They have not even been able to commence his trial. Instead, they have continually disobeyed court orders that he should be released from detention.”