Justice M. M. Kolo of Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Wuse, Abuja on Monday cautioned the media and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC against misrepresentation of court proceedings.
The judge gave the caution followed complaints by Barrister G.G Ezeuko (SAN), the defence lawyer in the trial of Henry Ugbolue and Larry Pepple, former aides of Kingsley Kuku, Special Adviser to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta Affairs, on two separate charges of alleged criminal conspiracy, false declaration of asset and fraudulent acquisition of property.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria had at the commencement of the proceedings drew the attention of the court to different newspaper reports of the last proceeding in the matter.
The lawyer who came to court with newspaper cuttings of the reports told the court that there were gross misrepresentations of court proceedings in the media stories, which he noted, were based on a statement issued by one Wilson Uwujaren, the spokesman of EFCC.
He added that the statement issued by the EFCC spokesman with the title, ‘How Kuku, Aides, Pocketed Over N35.2m from Amnesty Funds’ which was reproduced verbatim by many publications online and in print was not actual representation of what happened in court as Kingsley Kuku was not one of the defendants in the ongoing trial. “The best tradition of the law is that parties should respect the dignity of the court instead of making prejudicial statements,” the defence lawyer said.
But Barrister E. Ukaegbu, the prosecution lawyer argued that the EFCC cannot be held responsible for the publications, an assertion which was rebuffed by the defence lawyer who specifically called attention of the court to the fact that the spokesperson of the anti graft agency was quoted as the source of the media reports.
The defence lawyer therefore asked the court to call the EFCC and its spokesman to order.
In his response, the Honourable Justice Kolo noted that he has also been a victim of such misrepresentations in the past warned the parties against engaging in media trial. He however assured that such media reports will not influence the decision of the court: “What Can I do? It has happened before to this court. Kuku is not before me. It (media reports) will not deter me from doing my job.”
Justice Kolo also collected the newspaper cuttings of the reports from the defence lawyer, promising to bring up the issue of misrepresentations of the court proceedings at a scheduled summit of judges with Ibrahim Magu, the Chairman of EFCC.
However, the trial could not proceed as the witness subpoenaed by the court, Ayogu Nnamdi, a compliance officer with the UBA could not answer the questions put to him by the defence lawyer during cross examination .
Consequently, the prosecution noted that it was apparent that the witness was not adequately prepared for the cross examination and therefore asked the court for adjournment .
The request was not opposed by the defence lawyer and Justice Kolo subsequently adjourned the trial to 27 November.
