By Lukman Olabiyi
JUSTICE Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday affirmed that Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Rickey Tarfa changed his evidence, denying an allegation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that he paid N225,000 bribe into Justice Mohammed Yunusa’s bank account.
The lawyer had filed a fundamental rights enforcement suit against EFCC after the agency arrested him for allegedly obstructing the administration of justice by shielding two of his clients from arrest.
The EFCC, however, filed a counter-affidavit in opposition to Tarfa’s suit, alleging that the lawyer paid N225,000 bribe into Justice Yunusa’s account. At the time, a Federal High Court judge was hearing a suit involving Tarfa’s clients.
Tarfa admitted paying N225,000 into the judge’s account and insisted that the money was a contribution by Yunusa’s personal friends to support the judge during the burial of his father-in-law.
The suit, however, took a new twist when Tarfa subsequently claimed that the account EFCC claimed he paid the N225,000 into was actually owned by his former employee, Mr. Mohammed Awwal Yunusa, and not Justice Yunusa.
The lawyer made the claim in a further and better affidavit filed after the suit had been set down for ruling.
The EFCC, however, opposed the competence of the further and better affidavit containing the fresh claim Tarfa made. The anti-graft agency’s lawyer, Mr. Wahab Shittu, argued that Tarfa’s new claim was an afterthought. He urged Justice Idris to refuse Tarfa’s application to furnish the court with the new evidence contained in the further and better affidavit.