March 15, 2023

Justice Tijani Ringim of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Wednesday ordered a trial- within- trial in the alleged N304.1m fraud trial involving a former acting Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Haruna Baba Jauro, and two others.

Jauro alongside Dr. Dauda Bitrus Bawa and a company, Thlumbau Enterprises Limited, is being prosecuted on a 19-count charge bordering on stealing and money laundering to the tune of N304, 118, 500( Three Hundred and Four Million One Hundred and Eighteen Thousand Five Hundred Naira).

At today’s proceedings, the third prosecution witness, PW3, Orji Chukwuma, an investigator with the EFCC, in his further evidence, told the court that both the first and second defendants were invited to the EFCC office and that the first defendant had interactions with the investigating team in his office.