A Deputy Comptroller of Immigration, Mr. Tanko Kutana, on Friday, narrated before the Federal High Court in Abuja, how Justice Sylvester Ngwuta of the Supreme Court who is facing corruption charges, obtained multiple international passports. Kutana who testified as the third prosecution witness, PW-3, told the court that he formerly served at the document fraud unit of the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, as a forensic expert before he was transferred to the Benue Command. Justice Sylvester Ngwuta of the Supreme Court He told the court that Justice Ngwuta had between 2012 and 2016, obtained four different international passports, adding that two of them were diplomatic passports that could gain the defendant entrance into any country.
According to the witness, the NIS issued second passport to Ngwuta after he claimed that he lost the one that was previously issued to him. He told the court that the first passport which was issued to the embattled jurist on November 29, 2012, will expire by November 28, 2017, while the second passport which will expire on April 10, 2021, was issued to the defendant on April 20, 2016.
The witness said whereas the first passport has a valid American visa on its page 11, issued on August 26, 2015 and to expire August 24, 2017, Ngwuta’s second passport has at its Visa page at No 25, a valid American Visa issued on September 27, 2016, which will expire on September 25, 2017. “The second passport also has a valid British Visa issued on June 22, 2016, which will expire on June 2, 2018”.
The PW-3 told the trial court that the defendant who is facing an amended 11-count corruption charge, swore an affidavit for all the international passports that were issued to him by the NIS. Meanwhile, trial Justice John Tsoho admitted into evidence, two of the international passports bearing Ngwuta’s name, registered as No AO4389985 and No. AO7274634.
The passports were marked as exhibits 5A and 5B, respectively. The prosecution also tendered Certified True Copy of an affidavit Ngwuta sworn to on March 21, 2016, for loss of his international passport and it was admitted as exhibit 6. A letter from Supreme Court for Ngwuta to be assisted to get new passport, dated April 5, 2016, and a police report to that effect, were also admitted in evidence by the court.
The witness insisted that the two passports were still valid and could be used for travel, saying there was no endorsement cancelling their validity. “To the best of my knowledge the defendant has not reported to the National Immigration Service that he has found the missing passport. If he did, one would have been cancelled”, he added. Asked if Ngwuta would have reported his missing passport to both the Police and the NIS if his intentions were criminal, the witness said: “My lord, the defendant is somebody I hold in high regard as a Justice of the Supreme Court so we had no reason to doubt his intentions for demanding fresh passport. “However, in the course of my work, I have had cause to arrest highly placed individuals for tampering with their passports”.
Nevertheless, the PW-3 admitted before the court that Ngwuta was yet to travel with the second passport. He told the court that there was no evidence that Justice Ngwuta used the two passports interchangeably. “However my lord, we discovered that he used his diplomatic passports interchangeably”. The witness said he was earlier invited by office of the AGF to make a statement on the case. The said statement was tendered into evidence by the prosecution.
The court has adjourned further hearing on the matter till May 16 and 17. It will be recalled that Ngwuta was among seven superior court Judges that were arrested after a sting operation the DSS conducted between October 7 and 8, 2016. Charges against him border on money laundering, age falsification and his alleged illegal possession of multiple international passports. FG alleged that he retained in his possession, the sum of N35, 358, 000.00, contrary to the Money Laundering ( Prohibition) Act 2011 (as amended). It further alleged that Ngwuta equally retained in his possession, the sum of $319,596.00 (USD) and (GBP) 25, 915, monies the prosecution said formed part of the proceeds of unlawful act contrary to the Money Laundering Act. FG told the court that several sums of cash were allegedly recovered from Ngwuta’s official residence in Abuja, including the sum of N35.3 million, $319,596.00(USD), and 25,915 pounds sterling.
It said the DSS had during the raid, recovered four diplomatic passports, one official and two standard Nigerian passport passports, all in the name of the defendant. According to FG, Ngwuta, by obtaining multiple passports, committed an offence contrary and punishable under section 10 of the Immigration Act, 2015. Besides, the defendant who is 65 years old, was alleged to have made false statement to the passport office concerning his actual date of birth, for the purpose of procuring an additional Diplomatic Passport.
Credit: Vanguard
