From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
For the third consecutive time, the trial of the former Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, has been stalled due to the absence of an interpreter for the proceedings.
Mamman is standing trial on 12-count charge of conspiracy and money laundering, involving N33.8billion meant for the Mambilla Power Project.
Before the development, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) presented its witnesses, who gave their testimonies, before the court went into a trial-within-trial.
Justice James Omotosho had on March 19, paused the main trial to conduct a trial-within-trial, following the defence counsel’s objection to EFCC move to tender a disputed statement credited to the former minister.
The trial-within-trial is to determine if the defendant made the disputed statement from his free will.
The prosecution was to tender the disputed statement, dated February 20, 2024, through its 17th witness, when the defence counsel, Femi Atteh (SAN), raised an objection to its admissibility, and that it was taken under duress.
At the end of the video evidence currently being played in court by the EFCC, the defence counsel would kick start the cross- examination of the EFCC witness.
However, proceedings of May 2, 2025 were stalled by the absence of an interpreter in court. On that day, when the case was called, the prosecution counsel, A O. Muhammed, informed the court that though the matter was for continuation of trial-within-trial, however, he was experiencing difficulty in getting an interpreter.
He said he was informed that the official interpreter of the court was on an official engagement. The prosecution counsel consequently requested for a short adjournment to enable the presence of an interpreter. The defence counsel, Emmanuel Hassan, did not object his oral application.