Mambilla in court: How EFCC submitted two different “EC Conclusions” to court
The court discovered that the two versions of “EC Conclusions” submitted by EFCC have substantial and significant contrasts. They are different in features, content and in structure but are claiming to be the Minutes of Federal Executive Council (FEC) Meeting.
Wednesday, 11 March 2026
The Court was ready at 9.00 am, Court but did start until 10.30 am but when the Mambilla case was called at 10.45 am, it was discovered 20 minutes into the case some of the Exhibits and court documents were missing or misplaced. The case was stepped down to enable the court some time to find these documents.
The Mambilla case was called again at 1.45 pm after the court found the misplaced court documents within the displaced cabinets and boxes of papers packed outside of their regular abodes because of the extensive renovation works in the courtroom, offices and Chambers.
The Defence lawyer went straight to ask the EFCC Officer, Mr. Umar Babangida, referred to as PW3, was asked whether he could recall that the Defendant, Agunloye, had indicated in his written extra-judicial statement that the document titled “EC Conclusions” had been altered. PW3 said “Yes’ but added that Agunloye was wrong in saying so. The defence asked him how he found that Agunloye was wrong. PW3 told the court that he carried out an unofficial and undocumented investigation whose report he has not submitted to anyone in EFCC or to any court.
Under further cross-examination, PW3 also admitted that EFCC wrote to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and obtained “EC Conclusions” which he presented as an “extract of the minutes of the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) of 21 May 2003. PW3 admitted that he tendered this in court as Exhibit 3D.
PW3 again admitted that he also sought, obtained and submitted another “EC Conclusions” said to be from the Ministry of Power to be yet another “Extract of the minutes of the FEC meeting of 21 May 2003” which he tendered as Exhibit 3K.
At this stage, the Defence lawyer proceeded to lead PW3 to establish before the court clear differences between the two Exhibits 3D and 3K tendered by PW3 as “EC Conclusions” and presented to the court as “Extract of the minutes of the FEC meeting of 21 May 2003″
The Defence lawyer then addressed the court saying that “it is clear before the court that the witness, (PW3, Mr. Umar Babangida of EFCC) has tendered before this Honourable Court two different documents as ‘EC Conclusions’”. As the judge was dutifully taking notes, the prosecution lawyer, Barr. Abba Mohammed, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, raised “Objection, my Lord. Objection”. He exchanged hot words with the defence lawyer and urged the Court to allow his witness, PW3, to explain why there were so many differences between the two versions of the “EC Conclusions” said to be from “the Office of the SGF” and the one by “the Ministry of Power.”
The Defence argued that his position was simple and plain and he sought the permission of His Lordship to restate it before the court again as:
1. The Defendant had submitted to court, as earlier stated by PW3, that the document labelled as “EC Conclusions” had been tampered with.
2. PW3 admitted that he tendered two versions of “EC Conclusions” as Exhibit-3D and Exhibit-3K.
3. Together with PW3, we established before this court that Exhibits 3D and 3K are substantially different and with significant contrasts.
4. There is no need to know from PW3 why the two versions of “EC Conclusions” are different because he is not the maker of any of the documents except, he is an interested party.
5. That if the prosecution wants to explain the reasons why the two documents are different, they should invite the Office of the SGF and the Ministry of Power to the court or re-open the matter of “EC Conclusions” during the re-examination.
The judge also listened attentively to the prosecution and then ruled against further explanations on why Exhibits 3D and 3K were different. He adjourned the case until Monday, 16 March 2026.
Suleiman Yohana
@AbujaNews 11-03-26
