BEVERLY HILLS, February 13, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government on Sunday debunked the claim by Mr. Charles Adeogun-Phillips that he voluntarily withdrew in protest as the lead prosecuting counsel in the trial of a Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, on corruption charges.
Contrary to this claim, the Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami SAN disclosed that the lead prosecutor in the trial of Supreme Court’s Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, was fired for alleged conflict of interests.
Adeogun-Phillips appeared before Justice John Tsoho of a Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday, announcing his withdrawal as the lead prosecuting counsel in Ngwuta’s trial on money laundering charges involving over N500m. He was however silent on what informed his decision.
He was the leader of ‘Team 16’ of the National Prosecution Coordination Committee, NPCC, saddled with the prosecution of the case involving Justice Ngwuta and three officials of the Supreme Court, including the Chief Registrar, Ahmed Gambo Saleh.
Media reports had quoted some sources close to Adeogun-Phillips as attributing his sudden withdrawal from Justice Ngwuta’s trial to his disagreement with the office of the AGF over its decision to discontinue the trial of Saleh and others, which is believed to have involved the largest amount of money – N2.2b.
But Malami, in a statement issued on Sunday by his media aide, Salihu Isah faulted such reports, claiming that that Adeogun-Phillips was fired after it was discovered that the lawyer had failed to disclose to the NPCC headed by the AGF that he was defending another criminal case, putting him in a situation of conflict of interest.
He added that that it was wrong for the AGF to retain Adeogun-Phillips while he was representing a private interest against a government agency.
The statement said that the withdrawal of the charges against the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Mr. Ahmed Saleh, and two other officials of the apex court, was part of the three erstwhile defendants’ plea bargain arrangement with the Federal Government.
The statement read in part, “Contrary to (the) impression given by Charles Adeogun-Phillips, the lead prosecutor in the suit against Supreme Court judge, Justice Sylvester Nwali Ngwuta, in various reports suggesting that he withdrew from the case on his own volition, the National Prosecution Coordination Committee that engaged his services actually withdrew the fiat issued to him to prosecute the case — over non-disclosure of conflict of interests and for other sundry reasons.
“The reports in a section of the media last Friday that he left in protest due to last week Tuesday’s dropping of charges earlier instituted against the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Ahmed Gambo Saleh, and two other officials of the apex court, Muhammad Abdulrahman Sharif and Rilwanu Lawal, which he is also handling for the Federal Government, cannot be relied upon.
“The insinuation that the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation withdrew the case against the three Supreme Court officials because they are northerners is also unwarranted due to the fact that the dropping of the suit was done in good faith and in the context of plea bargaining to achieve greater goals in the prosecution of the other bigger cases that are ongoing against Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, among others.
“So, it is wicked and childish for anyone to allude to undue colouration to an action taken in national interest and reduce it to a North/South thing with a view to confuse the discerning public.
“This is not the first time such process will be entered into in law, especially so as the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 allows plea bargaining in line with national interest.”
Malami said a similar situation had happened in the past when the allegations against Sergeant Rogers, who was accused of killing Kudirat Abiola, a wife of the acclaimed winner of the 1993 presidential election, the late Chief M.K.O Abiola, were dropped for him (Rogers) to be used as a prosecution witness against Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd.), the then prime suspect.
