The ongoing criminal trial of a former governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, was stalled on Tuesday due to the inability of the prosecution to bring to court one of its major witnesses, one M.A. Udoh.
According to the prosecuting counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), Udoh had been evasive, adding that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had been having difficulty bringing him to court.
“Our main witness that we intend to call, we have approached him for more than six months; we have noticed that each time the matter is coming up, he would just travel to Umuahia or Calabar or Cameroon. He always has the dates of the matter and I was forced to apply for a subpoena. Your Lordship signed one, which we took to the Abia State Government House, Umuahia because we found out that he was a civil servant, but on getting there, we were told that he had since left service.
“He was supposed to come to court today but he switched off his phone. EFCC operatives went to his house in Umuahia, yesterday (Monday) and this morning, they met his wife who said he had travelled to Calabar. Despite all the efforts, we have not been able to bring him to court,” Jacobs decried.
He alleged that some persons were behind Udoh’s evasiveness.
He urged the court to grant him a short adjournment to enable him to locate and bring Udoh to court to testify.
But the defence counsel — Prof. Awa Kalu (SAN), Chief Solo Akoma (SAN) and Chief K.C.Nwofor (SAN) – vehemently opposed the application for an adjournment, describing it as frivolous.
“We are not going to agree to a request that will force Your Lordship to close for one week,” Kalu fumed.
He wondered why any of the other three witnesses was also not produced in court, even if the prosecution had a difficulty bringing Udoh.
“That shows the frivolity of the steps they have taken to bring their witnesses to court,” Akoma said on his part.
He said on account of the slow pace of the case his client, which is a company, had lost huge amount in foreign currency in terms of contracts.
“We had 3,000 workers who have lost their jobs; we had 250 expatriates, they have lost their jobs and my friend is here asking for an adjournment,” he added.
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