A Federal High Court, Abuja, presided over by Justice Gabriel Kolawole, has adjourned the case of a former Head of Service, HoS, Stephen Oronsaye, to June 27, 2018.
Oronsaye is standing trial for an alleged N2 billion pension fraud, along with Osarenkhoe Afe, managing director, Fredrick Hamilton Global Services Limited.
At the resumed sitting today, June 19, 2018 Oluwole Aladedoye, counsel for Afe and Fredrick Hamilton, cross-examined Rouqayya Ibrahim, an EFCC operative, who testified as the first prosecution witness.
Aladedoye confronted the witness with an advertisement from the Office of the HoS calling for verification of pensioners across the 36 states of the Federation, including Abuja, in 38 designations centres, and questioned Ibrahim whether she interviewed any such pensioner.
“In the course of our investigations, we investigated fake pensioners, and their statements were taken, and at the moment some of them are standing trial,” she said, and told the court that she did not know of any such advert.
Ibrahim further explained that her team of investigators investigated biometric contracts particularly, “the contracts surrounding the verification and other related contracts”.
“Our investigation also revealed that a number of them did not carry out any contract for payments received,” she added.
Aladedoye, thereafter confronted the witness with Exhibit 1a, a statement made by Afe in the course of investigations, and urged the Court to provide her with a piece of paper and pen, for her to write out the cautionary words in the statement, since according to him, “she said she obtained the statement from him”.
The request was, however, objected to by prosecuting counsel, O.A. Atolagbe, arguing that the issue of the statement had already been decided by the court after the conclusion of a trial-within-trial.
“The counsel cannot have a second bite on the cherry, the court having ruled on the admissibility of the statement,” he argued, stressing that allowing the question to suffice will amount to “going round in circles”.