Dariye’s N1.2bn fraud case lingers as court adjourns

The alleged fraud case of N1.162billion levelled against former governor of Plateau Sen Joshua Dariye by the EFCC has been adjourned till March 2, by the FCT High Court, Gudu, presided over by Justice Adebukola Banjoko.

The former governor is being prosecuted by the anti-graft agency on a 21-count charge bordering on breach of trust and diversion of N1.162 billion Plateau’s ecological fund when he was the governor of the state.

Dariye assumed office as governor of the state on May 29, 1999 on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). He got re-elected for another four-year term in May 2003 and was impeached in November 2006.

The adjournment of the matter on Wednesday, will now afford the defendant ample time to study responses to two motions he earlier filed before the court.

In the first motion by the defendant, filed on December 6, 2016, he prayed for the prosecution to recall two of its witnesses, Prosecution Witness one (PW1) and Prosecution Witness 9 (PW9), for re-examination.

In his second motion which was filed on December13, 2016, Dariye is asking that the trial judge Banjoko, should disqualify herself from further presiding over the matter and asked that the case should be transferred to the Chief Judge of the FCT for re-assignment.

The defendant in a letter to the FCT Chief Judge, among other allegations, accused the trial judge of “manifest and undisguised bias.”