A former prosecutor at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Segun Jegede, has been engaged by the Federal Government to handle the trial of a Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, who is to be arraigned before a Federal High Court in Abuja today (Monday).
Jegede and another international lawyer, Charles Adeogun-Philips, have been engaged by the Federal Government to prosecute all the judges it lined up for trial.
The two lawyers with decades of international practice are separately leading two teams that have been briefed by the Federal Government through its National Prosecution Coordination Committee.
While Jegede is leading the prosecution of Justice Ngwuta, Adeogun-Philips has been briefed to lead the prosecution of some Supreme Court officials who had been charged with diversion of N2.2bn belonging to the apex court.
The two lawyers are both on the team of 80 special prosecutors of the Federal Government whose activities are being coordinated by the NPCC.
Jegede reportedly worked at the UNICTR for over a decade.
Jegede’s work at the UNICTR mainly revolved around the investigation and prosecution of some of the known masterminds of crimes committed during the Rwandan genocide.
According to online search engine, Wikipedia, the Rwandan genocide, which lasted about 100 days in 1994, was a mass slaughter of the members of the Tutsi ethnic group in Rwanda by the members of the Hutu majority government.
Jegede was also said to have had a stint at the Federal Ministry of Justice as a state counsel before going into legal practice and establishing his own law firm in 1988
Adeogun-Philips, who was born in England 50 years ago, is a former genocide and war crime prosecutor at the International Criminal Court.
Already, three cases have been filed with respect to the charges of corruption preferred against some judges and court officials, following the raid on the houses of some judges by the operatives of the Department of State Services between October 7 and 8, 2016.
The first case involved a Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Ngwuta, who was charged with 14 counts of money laundering before Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Another case involved a Federal High Court judge, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, who was charged with receiving gratifications, along with his wife.
The other one involved the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Ahmed Saleh, who was charged along with two other officials of the apex court.
The three apex court’s officials were jointly charged with alleged diversion of N2.2bn belonging to the court and receiving gratifications from contractors providing services to the court.
Also to be later charged is another Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Inyang Okoro.
Justice Ngwuta, who was charged with 14 counts of money laundering, has been scheduled to appear before Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court in Abuja, for arraignment today.
It was alleged in the 14 counts of money laundering that Ngwuta transferred the total sum of N505m “denominated in naira and US dollars” to a building contractor, Nwamba Linus Chukwuebuka, between January and May 2016.
The N505m was alleged to be part of proceeds of Ngwuta’s “unlawful” activities.
He was also accused in the amended charges of retaining N35,358,000; $319,596 and £25,915 during the raid on his house by the operatives of the Department of State Services between October 7 and 8.
Apart from the money laundering charges, Ngwuta was accused of passport offences in counts eight to 14 of the amended charges.
He was accused of being in possession of two valid diplomatic passports and another two valid Nigerian passports, when his house was raided by DSS operatives on October 8, 2016.
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