A prosecution witness in the trial of Supreme Court Judge, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta has told a Federal High Court that the defendant used multiple passports illegally.
Justice Ngwuta is charged with money laundering and breach of public trust.
The witness, Tanko Katana, an officer of the Nigerian Immigration Service, told the court on Friday that the Immigration Service replaced the lost passport of Justice Ngwuta because the organisation had no cause to doubt the affidavit evidence deposed by the defendant when he reported the loss of the document.
Katana said a new passport was issued to Justice Ngwuta by the NIS because he was convinced that the judge actually lost his travelling passport.
The witness, however, told the court that from his analysis, Justice Ngwuta cannot be found culpable of forgery but his use of two passports interchangeably amounts to an illegality.
Katana who was cross-examined by counsel to Justice Ngwuta, Kanu Agabi told the court that the immigration rules made allowance for a genuine mistake, but in the instant case, the defendant cannot be said to have made a genuine mistake.
The witness further informed the court that his forensic report showed that Justice Ngwuta was using the two standard passports interchangeably, at the time of his arrest on October 7, 2016, by the operatives of the Department of State Security.
Kutana said that ordinarily, the Supreme Court Justice who is being prosecuted by the government on charges of money laundering and breach of trust ought to have returned the recovered passport to the immigration when it was found.
The witness who confirmed that four diplomatic passport and two standard passports were found in the possession of the defendant said that his forensic analysis on the six passports did not show evidence of forgery.
Trial has been adjourned to continue on October 20th, 2017.