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.