A Federal High Court siting in Abuja was yesterday informed that the embattled Senator Aliyu Mohammed Ndume who is currently being tried on a four count charge that included providing logistics and funding to the radical Islamist sect- Boko Haram had a record of 73 communications in the form of sms, mms and voice calls between 3rd October and 3rd November, 2011, with convicted former spokesman of the group who is now serving a 3 year jail term.
This was made known by prosecution witness 3, Mr. Aliyu Usman, a forensic expert employed by the directorate of state security services, SSS, who started his testimony on Tuesday.
Usman informed the court that Ndume saved Konduga’s phone number on his own hand set as “Mal Ali BH” while Konduga saved the Senator’s phone number on his own phone book as “INDUME Sen Ali”.
Both phones were seized and had been tendered as evidence in the trial.
He revealed that the phone investigation report gathered through forensic analysis were burned into 3 DVDs and were equally printed in hard copies. He said: “These extractions, assessment, documentation and reporting were done according to forensic standard and submitted to the chairman of the special investigation panel which investigated the matter at the SSS office”.
Attempts by the prosecutor, Mr. Thompson Olatigbe to tender the 3 DVDs were however opposed by Senator Ndume’s lawyer, Mr. Rickey Tarfa, a senior advocate of Nigeria.
The defendant noted that the materials which are computer generated are secondary evidence and not the original copies.
Quoting section 84 of the Evidence Act, Tarfa maintained that for the materials to be admitted in evidence, that the Act provides that a statement must be prepared to authenticate the veracity of such material and pointed out that there is no such statement accompanying the DVDs which the prosecution wants the court to admit in evidence. According to the senior advocate, ” the absence of any statement showing that these copies are original and authentic copies makes them inadmissible. There ought to be an explanation about the unavailability of the original copies as what is sought to be tendered are secondary evidence. There is also no foundation as to why a secondary evidence is being sought to be tendered”
Tarfa opposed the admission of the DVDs as exhibits against the suspect.
While reacting, the prosecution witness, Mr. Olatigbe concord that the DVDs are secondary evidence developed from the primary evidence which are Konduga’s and Senator Ndume’s hand sets that have already been admitted as exhibits P5 and P6 in the trial. “The 3DVDs are mere extractions of Senator Aliyu Ndume’s links with Boko Haram’s spokesman from both phones. The content and facts contained in the DVDs are all in the two phones and it is the duty of the court and the parties to look at the said phones viz a viz the materials sought to be tendered. The information on the DVDs were obtained through the phones by use of forensic tool kits”
He thereafter called on the honourable court to admit the DVDs as evidence in the interest of justice, noting that the sections being laid upon by Ndume’s lawyer do not apply.
Justice Gabriel Kolawole subsequently adjourned the case till Friday, 14th December, to rule on the admissibility of the DVDs.
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