A Federal High Court, of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, presided over by Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, on Tuesday, January 28, adjourned till February 25, the trial of a former Minister of the Interior, Abba Moro.
Moro is facing prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for procurement fraud and money laundering and for allegedly defrauding Nigerian applicants, who applied for employment into the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, to the tune of N675,675,000.
The amount represents N1,000 obtained from each applicant through e-payment for the online recruitment exercise on March 15, 2014 – an exercise in which 15 applicants died, and scores injured, due to the ministry’s shoddy preparations for the exercise.
Moro is charged alongside Anastasia Daniel-Nwobia, a former secretary in the ministry, F.O. Alayebami, a deputy director in the ministry, Mahmood Ahmadu, currently at large, and Drexel Tech Nigeria Limited, a firm involved in the ill-fated recruitment exercise.
At the resumed hearing on January 28, the prosecuting counsel, Aliyu Yusuf, filed a motion for the extension of the time within which the prosecution will file written submission in reply to the “no-case” submission filed by the third defendant.
The representative of the counsel to the first defendant, Eti Kehinde, also prayed the court for extension of time in order to be able to serve no-case submission on behalf of his client. Counsel for the second and fourth defendants also respectively moved motions on notice for extension of time within which they may file their no-case submissions.
Justice Dimgba adjourned the matter until February 25 and March 25, respectively for the continuation of trial.
