{"id":82494,"date":"2026-02-07T07:19:05","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T07:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=82494"},"modified":"2026-02-07T07:19:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T07:19:05","slug":"n10bn-fraud-trial-court-registrar-under-probe-over-alleged-exhibit-tampering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2026\/02\/07\/n10bn-fraud-trial-court-registrar-under-probe-over-alleged-exhibit-tampering\/","title":{"rendered":"N10bn Fraud Trial: Court Registrar Under Probe Over Alleged Exhibit Tampering"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Maitama, Abuja, has ordered the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services (DSS) to investigate alleged tampering with exhibits in an ongoing N10bn fraud trial.<\/p>\n<p>The order followed allegations that the court\u2019s registrar, Nasiru Zubairu, colluded with the second defendant, Daudu Sulaiman, to delete WhatsApp messages from a mobile phone admitted as evidence.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the judge disclosed in open court that the registrar had privately confessed he was offered an inducement to interfere with the exhibits.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Omotosho said the disclosure was in line with the Federal High Court\u2019s policy on discovery and disclosure, stressing that the judiciary has zero tolerance for actions capable of undermining judicial integrity.<\/p>\n<p>In court, the judge played an audio recording of Zubairu\u2019s confession. The registrar reportedly admitted that Sulaiman promised to help him secure accommodation in exchange for deleting some WhatsApp chats from the phone tendered as exhibits.<\/p>\n<p>The court also permitted the Director of Public Prosecutions, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), to lead the EFCC investigating officer, Muhammed Abubakar, to verify the claims.<\/p>\n<p>Abubakar told the court that several WhatsApp conversations between 2020 and 2022 were missing, identifying gaps in chat records for multiple dates.<\/p>\n<p>Following the development, Oyedepo requested a comprehensive investigation, sought the revocation of the second defendant\u2019s bail, and asked for a forensic examination of the device.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Omotosho subsequently directed the police and DSS to investigate the alleged tampering and report back to the court. The case was adjourned to February 9, 2026, for continuation of trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Maitama, Abuja, has ordered the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services (DSS) to investigate alleged tampering with exhibits in an ongoing N10bn fraud trial. The order followed allegations that the court\u2019s registrar, Nasiru Zubairu, colluded with the second defendant, Daudu [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":82495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1386,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judiciary","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82496,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82494\/revisions\/82496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}