By IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI
ABUJA—A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, Wednesday, okayed a former governor of Plateau State, Mr. Michael Boatmang, for trial over allegations that he pilfered N1.5 billion from the public treasury within five months he held sway in the state.

Trial Justice G.K. Olotu, Wednesday, ordered the former governor to prepare his defence to the 31-count criminal charge preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a day the accused person pleaded not guilty to the allegation.

Boatmang, who was governor of Plateau State, between November 13, 2006 and April 9, 2007, is answering to charges bordering on corruption, money laundering and embezzlement of public funds.

Meanwhile, trial of the accused person, who assumed office after his boss, Chief Joshua Dariye, was impeached, has suffered a series of setbacks owing to the abrupt transfer of two justices, Anwuri Chikere and Justice Muhammad Umar both of whom had previously presided over the case.

At the resumed hearing of the matter, yesterday, frantic attempt by the defence counsel, Mr. M. Y. Saleh, SAN, to discredit the substantive petition that culminated to the trial, was dismissed by Justice Olotu.

During the proceeding yesterday, a prosecution witness and investigative officer of EFCC, Mr. Adamu Garba, told the trial court that most of the cheques used to withdraw money from the account of Plateau State Government during the less than six-month tenure of the accused person, did not pass through the Cheque Movement Register, CMR, in the office of the Accountant–General, adding that further probe revealed that the state had two Accountants-General: Nuhu Madaki and Nanshai Binnai, within that period.

The case has been  adjourned for November 17 and 24.

Garba also told the court that Madaki made a voluntary statement where he admitted that the cheques used to withdraw money from the Intercontinental Bank were Classified Cheques and that the money was withdrawn and handed over to the accused person; adding that the cheques were not supposed to appear in the CMR.

When the petition by Jang was tendered as exhibit, the defence counsel opposed vehemently as he said that the letter was addressed to the former Chairman of the EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and therefore can not be tendered by any other person outside the former chairman of the Commission.

But Justice Olotu, who showed no sign of entertaining frivolous applications on the matter, told the defence counsel that there was no need to waste time on the document. “Let us not waste time on this. This letter was addressed to the chairman of the EFCC in 2007; any other officer of the EFCC can present the same letter today.

The accused person’s objection to the admissibility of the document in evidence is over ruled and marked exhibit 3”, she ruled. The statements written by the Business Manager, Intercontinental bank, Jos, Mr. Danjuma Usman, and the two Accountants General as well as the two statements of the former governor being prosecuted were equally admitted in evidence.

In the statement of the accused which was read by Mr. Garba, Boatmang had said that N100 million of the N1.3 billion for which he is being prosecuted was a loan taken from Bank PHB on the orders of the PDP leadership to prosecute the 2007 election as he said that the then President Olusegun Obasanjo gave him a mandate to ensure the victory of all the PDP candidates who stood for the 2007 election in Plateau state.

He also wrote in the statement he volunteered that N750 million which was taken from Intercontinental Bank as a loan for the construction of Jos main Market was diverted to the payment of teachers’ salary upon approval of former president Obasanjo.

While adjourning the case till November 17 and 24, 2011, the judge warned that she would not entertain any frivolous applications that would delay the case. She said the two days is for the prosecution to complete and close its case.