El-Rufai’s trial: PHCN manager’s denial triggers controversy

The trial of former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir El Rufai, was hit with another controversy yesterday over an exhibit.

Michael Okoye, a former Assistant General Manager with the PHCN, told the court under cross-examination that he saw an FCDA letter of July 2003 allocating Plot 1201 Asokoro to the PHCN. But when he was asked to read the comments inscribed on it, he denied ever seeing that copy.

The remark on the exhibit is to the effect that the FCDA has no power to allocate land, and that there was no FCT minister at the time the letter was written.

Counsel to the prosecution admitted that they tendered the document, but it was without the remarks, and that they would be clarifying the matter later. Media advisor to Mallam El Rufai, Olumuyiwa Adekeye , said in a press release “Okoye, the third prosecution witness (PW3), told the court that Plot 1201 was meant for a power sub-station. He said that when he noticed that Plot 1201 was being tampered with, he constructed block-work fence to secure the place, but the fence was later pulled down. He said he does not know who encroached on the plot and he denied that PHCN evinced an intention to surrender or reduce the size of the plot before he disengaged from service in June 2008. Okoye said the encroachment reduced the plot size from 2.5 hectares to 1.5 hectares. PHCN, Okoye testified, reacted to the encroachment by writing a letter to the Minister of Power, complaining that they never indicated disinterest in the plot.

PW3 further told the court that corridors are established when PHCN wants to move high tension cables from one transmission station or substation to another to improve power supply in a particular locality. He denied that PHCN asked for a corridor for Plot 1201 because it is only when the sub-station is completed that PHCN can seek for a corridor. He said he did not seek FCDA approval before fencing the plot, and had not sought such approval for the other PCHN properties he had fenced in the Abuja area.”

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