$25,000 bribe: Court warns against distortion of facts
Justice Iyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja has threatened to strike out a suit against former Kaduna senator, Shehu Saniover distorted publications by the EFCC.
Justice Ekwo issued this warning on Tuesday after his attention was drawn to the publication on the Twitter page of the anti-graft agency by A.A Ibrahim, Mr. Sani’s counsel.
Mr. Sani’s counsel alleged that the tweet by EFCC was a false narration of what transpired in court on Monday.
Reacting to the allegation, the judge said that the court has the last say adding that public opinion does not decide cases
“The court of public opinion is not a court of coordinate jurisdiction. It is this court that has the last say at the end of this matter. Not the court of public opinion,” Mr. Ekwo said. “From the beginning of this case, I have said the record of this case is public records and it can be obtained by anybody including the media.”
Warning the anti-graft agency against further distorted publications, Justice Ekwo said there will be consequences for misrepresenting the court proceedings.
“I don’t want to hear about distorted publications again,” he said.
“If I hear about it again, I’m going to throw away your case and you can take it to whoever you like.”
The anti-graft agency had in a Twitter post on Monday alleged that Bako Aliyu, a prosecution witness told the court that Mr. Sani, hurriedly returned the $25,000 he allegedly extorted from a complainant following the report of the case to EFCC.
Mr. Aliyu testified as EFCC’s 10th prosecution witness in Mr Sani’s trial for fraud.
The former senator was arraigned by the EFCC on January 27, 2020, over allegations of fraud. Mr. Sani was alleged to have extorted the sum of $25,000 from Sani Dauda, the chairperson of A.S.D Motors with the promise to shield him from probe by the anti-graft agency.
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