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Justice Umaru Fadawu of the Borno State High Court, Maiduguri, has ordered Aisha Alkali Wakil alias “Mama Boko Haram” to testify orally in her defence rather than through writing.
It will be recalled that the EFCC closed its case against Wakil and her co-defendants on February 11, 2021, while the matter was adjourned to March 1, 2021 for the defendants to open their defense.
However, rather than open their defense on March 1, 2021, Wakil filed an application seeking the leave of the Court to enter her defence in writing, citing an inability to speak which she premised on ill-health.
The prosecuting counsel, Fatsuma Mohammed had objected and prayed the Court to refuse the application on the grounds that, the first defendant placed no material fact before the court to show that she could not speak, and that she pleaded ‘not guilty’ orally, when she was arraigned on March 5, 2020.
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Kayode Idowu, Maiduguri
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Thursday arraigned a man, Modu Kotoko, before the Maiduguri High Court for alleged fraud of N20m.
The defendant allegedly collected the sum from one Abubakar Girgiri on the pretext of financing the purchase of cars on sale by auction.
Kotoko was arraigned before Justice Aisha Kumaliya of the Borno State High Court, Maiduguri, on one count of obtaining money by false pretences.
According to the EFCC, the victim had transferred the money before he discovered that the auction was a hoax.
The charge against the defendant read, “That you, Modu Ali Kotoko, sometime in December 2019, in Maiduguri, Borno State, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, with intent to defraud, obtained the sum of N20,000,000 from Mohammed Abubakar Girgiri, which you falsely claimed the money was to finance the auction of cars, a claim you knew to be false, thereby committing an offence contrary t