A Federal High Court registrar has admitted deleting WhatsApp chat evidence in the ongoing N10 billion fraud trial of Kogi State Chief of Staff, Ali Bello.
Nasiru Zubairu, a court registrar at the Federal High Court, Abuja, has been implicated in the deletion of WhatsApp chat evidence linked to the ongoing N10 billion fraud case against Kogi State Chief of Staff, Ali Bello. On Thursday, Justice James Omotosho disclosed that Zubairu confessed to him that Daudu Suleiman, the second defendant in the case, had approached him to use a code to wipe some WhatsApp messages from a mobile phone submitted to the court as an exhibit.
Addressing the court, Justice Omotosho said he played a recording of Zubairu’s confession before calling the registrar to testify. “I have to disclose it because that is what the Chief Judge told us. To ensure we disclose such a thing as early as possible. We have a policy of discovery and disclosure at the Federal High Court. We have zero tolerance for this kind of attitude. The person involved is here, I will call him so that you will hear from the horse’s mouth,” the judge said. In his confession, Zubairu stated that Suleiman had offered to provide him with a house in exchange for deleting specific WhatsApp messages, adding, “I was asked to delete some certain information, some WhatsApp messages in the exhibits on the promise that I will be given a house.”
When questioned by the court, Zubairu said he could not recall the exact chats he deleted, noting, “I can’t remember but I opened only two chats.” Following this, Justice Omotosho allowed prosecution counsel Rotimi Oyedepo to lead EFCC investigating officer Muhammed Abubakar in evidence, who confirmed that exhibits ‘N’ and ‘O’, containing chats dated between 2020 and 2022, had been tampered with, adding that conversations between December 3, 2020, and December 28, 2020, involving the ‘Director General, Government’, were among those deleted.