Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Wednesday, October 30, 2019 adjourned the trial of Abiodun Agbele, an aide of former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, to December 2, 2019.
The adjournment followed the application for more time by the defence team, which objected to the cross-examination of the fifth prosecution witness (PW5), Damola Otuyalo, former head of Cash in Transit, Diamond Bank Plc, on exhibits AA14, AA15 and AA16.
Agbele is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on allegation of money laundering to the tune of N1.2 billion.
Representative of the counsel to the first defendant had argued that he has not sited the document before and have no idea of what it contains.
Counsel to the third defendant, Olalekan Ojo SAN aligned with him and both prayed the court to give them time to study the document so that they could structure their cross-examination in line with the contents of the new evidence.
Justice Dimgba, however, advised the defence counsel to examine the document as it was only two pages. “You are generals in this field; I don’t see why a two-page document will require an adjournment,” he said; and stood down trial to enable the defence go through the document.
On resumption, the defence counsel stood their ground not to continue with the cross-examination, noting that the input of the lead defence counsel Mike Ozekhome, SAN will be needed in framing questions for cross-examination on the new document.
The matter was adjourned to December 2, 2019 for hearing.