A Federal High Court in Abuja has scheduled a ruling for March 18 in the trial-within-trial being conducted in the N10 billion alleged money laundering case involving Ali Bello (the Chief of Staff to the Kogi State governor, Ahmed Ododo) and his associate, Dauda Suleiman.

Justice James Omotosho chose the date on Friday after lawyers to parties made their final submissions and adopted the final written addresses in the trial-within-trial.

Bello and his associate, Dauda Suleiman are being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly laundering about N10 billion, funds said to belong to Kogi State.

The trial-within-trial is being conducted to ascertain the voluntariness or otherwise of the extra-judicial statements made by the defendants during investigation.

The defendants objected to the prosecution’s decision to tender the eight statements, claiming they were put under duress and threatened before making the statements.

In his final submission, lawyer to Bello, K. C. Wisdom urged the court to hold that the extra-judicial system of the first defendant was not voluntarily obtained

Wisdom prayed the court to reject the statements as evidence.

Suleiman’s lawyer, Olusegun Jolaawo (SAN) made similar submissions and urged the court to hold that the statements were made in contravention of Sections 15(4) and 17(2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA).

The prosecution’s lawyer, Abdullahi Mohammed urged the court to admit in evidence the six statements made by Bello and the two by Suleiman on the grounds that the statements were made voluntarily by the defendants.

Source; The Nation News