The Court of Appeal in Gombe State has ordered the case involving a former Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Abdu Bulama and four others be reassigned to another Federal High Court for retrial.
The former minister was arraigned by the Maiduguri Zonal Office of the EFCC, on Friday, May 29, 2018, before Justice Isa Dashen, of the Federal High Court, Damaturu, Yobe State on a seven-count that bordered on money laundering to the tune of N450m.
Bulama was prosecuted alongside Mohammed Kadai, a former Commissioner for Integrated and Rural Development in Yobe State and Deputy Coordinator of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Abba Tata; Muhammad Mamu and Hassan Ibn Jaks.
In the cause of the trial, counsel for the EFCC, Mukhtar Ahmed, presented six witnesses and tendered several documents that were admitted in evidence by the Court.
At the close of the prosecution’s case, the defendants opted for a ‘no-case submission.’
Justice Isa Dashen of the Federal High Court upheld the ‘no-case submission,’ discharged and acquitted all the defendants.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, the EFCC filed an appeal, asking the Appeal Court to set aside the decision of the lower Court.
The Appeal Court in its judgment of March 3, 2021, upheld the argument of the EFCC that the lower court erred in discharging and acquitting the defendants.
