Justice Jude Okeke of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court on Tuesday, September 24, 2019, fixed October 16, 2019 for ruling on an objection, raised by the defence team of Babachir Lawal on the admissibility of electronic evidences, comprising compact disc, print out from the disc and the digital forensic laboratory report, which connect the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation to Josmon Technologies, a company which is standing trial with him as defendant in the grass cutting scam.
According to the statement by EFCC, the items and the forensic report were presented by the second prosecution witness, Fatima Asabe Umar, a certified access data examiner with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Lawal, the first defendant and his younger brother Hamidu David Lawal, Suleiman Abubakar, Apeh John alongside two companies Rholavision Engineering and Josmon Technologies are facing prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on a 10-count amended charge, bordering on fraud, diversion of funds and criminal conspiracy to the tune of over N500 million (Five Hundred Million Naira) in the alleged grass cutting scam.
The defence had raised objection to a compact disc alongside the print out from the disc which shows how information linking Babachir to Josmon Technologies was extracted from the iphone of one Mr Gulani, using a cellebrite camera and and burnt into a disc
Offem Uket, the prosecution counsel, while responding to the objection observed that “What governs admissibility of a statement contained in a document, produced by computer such as a disc and its print out is Section 84 of the Evidence Act.” He clarified that electronic records such as a disc has to be tendered in the form of a print out which the prosecution did.