Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of a Federal High Court, Abuja has adjourned the trial of a former Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, to May 30 and 31, 2019 following logistics constraints experienced by the prosecution’s twelfth witness, PW12 slated to testify in court.
Moro is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, along with a former Permanent Secretary in the Interior Ministry, Anastasia Daniel-Nwobia; an ex-director in the Ministry, Felix Alayebami and a firm, Drexel Tech Nigeria Limited, for an alleged procurement fraud and money laundering, involving the ill-fated recruitment exercise into the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS.
At the last sitting on February 28, 2019, the trial judge had adjourned to today, March 28, 2019 for the prosecution to present the PW12.
However, when the matter was called for hearing at about 3.17pm, counsel for the EFCC, Aliyu M. Yusuf, informed that the witness, who was earlier in court and was set to testify, had to leave in order to catch a pre-scheduled 5pm flight to Benin, Edo State, for an urgent official assignment.
“We will be requesting for an adjournment in order to accommodate the development,” he said.
No objections were raised by the defence team.
Consequently, Justice Dimgba adjourned for “continuation of trial”.