Justice Ngwuta lied about age, missing passport' – Witness

Kutana said, through the false information allegedly given to the NIS by Ngwuta, the serving Justice of the Supreme Court, in 2016, obtained another diplomatic passport, which he allegedly continued to use interchangeably alongside the 2014 passport declared lost. Kutana, a Deputy Controller of Immigration, was testifying as the third prosecution witness in Ngwuta’s trial on charges of money laundering and passport fraud offences. The witness used to be of the Document Fraud Unit, the forensic investigative arm of the NIS in Abuja, before his redeployment to Benue State Command of the NIS. He had earlier testified on March 17, 2017, that apart from the two valid diplomatic passports being beld by Justice Ngwuta, the defendant was also discovered to have been holding two Nigerian standard passports with valid United States of America’s visas. The two diplomatic passports issued to the defendant in 2014 and 2017, as well as two standard passports issued in 2012 and 2016, were said to have been recovered from the judge’s home during the raid by the operatives of the Department of State Service between October 7 and 8, 2016. The witness had said he started conducting a forensic examination of the four passports after they were handed over to him by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation following the raid. Kutana had earlier concluded his testimony with cross-examination by the defence team led by Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN). But the prosecution later amended the charges by raising the counts from 12 to 13. This prompted the lead prosecuting counsel, Mrs. Olufemi Fatunde, to request that the witness be recalled. Led in evidence, by the lead prosecuting counsel, Fatunde, on Monday, Kutana said before the 2016 diplomatic passport was issued to the Justice of the apex court, Ngwuta had the antecedent of holding two valid diplomatic passports and using them interchangeably. According to the witness, the defendant was previously issued a new diplomatic passport in 2012 and was asked to return the earlier one issued in 2007 to enable the Nigerian Immigration Service to cancel it. The Immigration officer said Justice Ngwuta complied by returning the 2007 passport and the passport was cancelled. He, however, said the defendant failed to return the 2012 passport when a new one was issued to him in 2014. He said apart from failing to return the 2012 passport for cancellation, the Justice of the Supreme Court kept using the passport and his then newest diplomatic passport in issued in 2014 interchangeably. He said when the NIS authorities introduced the 64 pages passport in 2014, top government functionaries in the Presidency, presiding officers of the National Assembly and Justices of the Supreme Court were immediately issued new ones as a matter of courtesy.]]>