The N2.2 billion fraud trial of former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose was stalled on Friday as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission accused the ex-governor of going behind to threaten and compromise one of the prosecution witnesses.
The EFCC lawyer, Mr Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), told Justice C.J. Aneke that the anti-graft agency had decided to use another witness in the place of the one allegedly compromised by Fayose.
Jacobs alleged that the defendant went behind to meet and threaten the witness, Adewale Aladegbola, a bullion van driver with Zenith Bank, Ado Ekiti branch.
The prosecutor said as a result of the alleged threat when Aladegbola appeared before Justice Mojisola Olatoregun, who was earlier hearing the case, the witness turned around in his testimony to give different evidence from what he wrote in his statement at the EFCC office during the investigation.
Jacobs accused Fayose of attempting to pervert the course of justice, saying, “If not because of my intervention, this defendant would have been facing another charge.”