Prosecution witness in the on-going trial of the Supreme Court judge, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta has told an Abuja Federal High Court, how the defendant obtained multiple passports.
The witness, Tanko Kutana, a Deputy Controller of Immigration while being led in evidence by the prosecuting counsel, Olufemi Falake, Kutana said he was directed by the Comptroller-General of Immigration to examine Ngwuta’s documents in the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.
He said that at the AGF’s office, he was given some passports to examine, among which were one diplomatic passport, two international passports and one e-passport.
“I examined the two International passports which had Ngwuta’s name on it and I found out that they were validly issued passports.
“The two International passports aroused my curiosity because they were both valid Nigeria standard passports.
“So I took permission to go to my office to investigate how an individual can possess two valid international passports and there I discovered that he had declared one of the passports missing,” he said.
Kutana further stated that Ngwuta had reported the loss of his passport which was issued to him on November 29, 2012 and requested for a new one through a letter dated April 5, 2016.
According to him, the first international passport with number A04389985 which was issued on November 29, 2012 and was to expire November 28, 2017, contained an America visa issued on August 26, 2015 and to expire August 24, 2017.
While the replaced one with number A07274634 which was issued on April 20, 2016 to expire on April 19, 2021 also had a valid America visa issued on Sept. 27, 2016 to expire on Sept 25, 2018. He added that it also had a valid British visa issued on the June 28, 2016 and to expire June 28, 2018.
The two international passports, sworn affidavit and police extract were all tendered as evidence by the prosecutor.
During cross examination by the defence counsel, Kanu Agabi (SAN), the witness said the two passports were still valid because they had not expired and there was no endorsement for cancellation on them.
He also said the defendant had not used the new passport to travel since it was issued him. He further said that he had never met with Ngwuta before he made his statement at DSS or the AGF’s office adding that as a forensic investigator, he was not expected to see the owner of a document before giving his opinion.
Agabi sought to know from the witness if there was evidence to show that the two international passports were used interchangeably, but he said no.
The judge, adjourned the matter till May 16 and 17, 2017 for continuation of hearing
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