In an earlier sitting of the court, Dankaba had alleged that his statement on the alleged N11billion fraud was obtained under duress which made the court to order for a trial within trial over the objection raised by the accused. The two EFCC operatives, Abubakar Buba and Abu Fari Muhammad while testifying on Wednesday, debunked claims by the accused person that his statements were obtained under duress. They added that the statements of the accused were obtained freeely in the presence of his lawyers and other state ALGON officials. However, the presiding judge, Justice Maikaita Bako has fixed January 23rd and 24th for continuation of the case. In a related development, the Katsina State High Court has terminated the trial of three former officials of the state government charged with misappropriating over N5.7billion SURE-P funds because the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, failed to hand over the case file to the prosecution. The accused persons are a former special adviser to former Katsina State governor, Ibrahim Shema, on SURE-P, Nasiru Ingawa; the director of account and finance SURE-P department, Abdulaziz Shinkafi; and chief store officer Katsina state civil service, Bello Bindawa. The court terminated the case and discharged the accused persons, although the state government indicated interest to revive the trial. When the matter was called last Tuesday for hearing, Aminu Ibrahim, the state government counsel said the state government can not continue with the case as it was yet to possess the case file and therefore appealed for an indefinite adjournment. “My Lord, the case cannot go on today because we are still not in possession of the case file. We have not been given the case file by the ICPC,” Ibrahim said. Adamu Yarima, Counsel to the accused persons however raised no objection to the application by the prosecution counsel. “My Lord, I leave the decision on the application of the prosecution counsel to the discretion of the court,” he said. Justice Maikaita Bako, the court Judge giving his ruling asserted that, the appropriate order to make was to terminate the charges and discharge the accused persons. Mr Yarima, speaking shortly after the ruling to newsmen, blamed the ICPC for the failure to release the case file to the state government. Ibrahim, the prosecution counsel, on his part, said what the court ruling did only discharged them from the bail granted them by the court, but never acquitted the accused persons. “The ruling implies that, the state government may pursue the case when it obtains the case file from the ICPC”, he concluded. The termination of the case may have confirmed the fears of the ICPC when it initially objected to handing over the case. The ICPC and the opposition in the state had raised concerns that the move by the state government to take over the case was to frustrate the trial. The trial started in October last year, after the investigation by the ICPC into the alleged financial crimes committed by the officials of the state government in charge of SURE-P Department. But it could not proceed beyond the initial arraignment of the accused persons, following the decision of the state government to take over the prosecution from the ICPC. Sure-P was a programme of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration designed to re-invest government savings from fuel subsidy removal on critical infrastructure projects and social safety net programmes with direct impact on the citizens of Nigeria. In Katsina State, it is believed that not less than N5.7 billion trickled into the state for key infrastructural projects since the programme was established in 2012.]]>

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