A former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reformed Task Force Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, collapsed during the resumed hearing in his N2 billion money laundering trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday.
The sitting was scheduled for the hearing of the defendant’s no-case submission, following the close of the prosecution’s case with nine witnesses on Wednesday.
The defence lawyer, Anayo Adibe, was briefing the judge, Justice Okon Abang that his team was yet to receive the records of proceedings requested from the court’s registry when Maina’s collapse attracted attention from the dock.
Prison officials immediately rushed to attend to him.
Hence, Justice Abang said the court would break for about five minutes.
Meanwhile, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad is scheduled to inaugurate 72 legal practitioners recently elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
Justice Muhammad will administer the oath on the 72 SANs at the main courtroom of the Supreme Court on Monday, December 14, 2020.
The inauguration is part of the events that will formally flag off the 2020/2021 legal year of the court.
Director of Information of the Supreme Court, Dr Akande Festus who disclosed this in a statement in Abuja, recalled that the 2019/2020 legal year officially ended on Friday, September 11, 2020.
Akande disclosed that the event would be limited to stakeholders and dignitaries.
The statement reads in part, “Even though normal court sittings started almost immediately after the formal end of the last legal year, no official ceremony has been held in accordance with the age-long tradition of the Supreme Court to formally herald the commencement of the new legal year due to the raging COVID-19 pandemic.
“However, in strict adherence to the Covid-19 protocol, spouses and friends of the 72 new Senior Advocates will not be allowed into the Courtroom as was done in the past.”
