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| Atuche |
A former Managing Director of Bank PHB, Francis
Atuche, wants a Lagos High Court in Ikeja to recall two prosecution witnesses,
who had earlier testified in the charge preferred against him and others by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Atuche’s counsel, Chief Anthony Idigbe (SAN),
said the request for the recall of the witnesses was prompted by the discovery
of a document with which he intended to contradict earlier testimonies of the
witnesses.
Idigbe, who, on Tuesday informed the trial judge,
Lateefat Okunnu, of the application the defence had filed for the recall, named
the intended witnesses as Mr. Diamond Uju (PW 1)and Mrs. Elizabeth Ebi (PW3).
Both Uju and Ebi had earlier testified that a
N10.9bn loan facility was granted to their company, Future View Financial
Services Ltd. by Bank PHB, without any prior relationship with the bank and
request for the loan.
However, Idigbe told the court that the defence
team had discovered a board resolution showing that Future view Financial
Services Ltd had a business relationship with the bank and actually solicited
for the loan.
Idigbe said, “Recalling the witnesses for further
cross examination will aid the defence to create doubts in the case of the
prosecution because what the witnesses did was to tell the court half truths.”
Justice Okunnu decided to reserve her ruling on
the matter after entertaining the parties’ arguments.
Also at the Tuesday’s proceeding, the court
ordered the EFCC to provide the defence with storage drive of a chart
presentation made by a prosecution witness, Hamanda Bello, to corroborate his
oral testimony.
Okunnu had stopped the presentation by Bello, an
operative of the EFCC, upon the protest by the defence, who argued that they
ought to be aware of the content of the flash drive before the presentation in
court.
The judge, before adjourning the matter till
December 6, ordered in a ruling that the prosecution should make available to
the defence the content of the flash drive.
Punch
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