The Federal Government has instituted 20 teams of prosecutors, comprising 80 lawyers all together to handle high profile criminal cases following due investigation by law enforcement agencies.
Reportedly, each of the teams has four lawyers with a Senior Advocate of Nigeria as the head even though the identities of the lawyers, who were allegedly specially trained for several weeks, have not been revealed yet.
It was however, gathered that the lawyers were trained by the Prof. Itse Sagay-led Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption in a program that lasted for over one month.
Sources in the Federal Ministry of Justice in Abuja confirmed to Punch newspaper on Thursday that one of the teams of prosecutors had already been assigned to the forgery case recently instituted against Senate President Bukola Saraki; his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, and two others.
When the trial resumes on Monday, the team will take over the prosecution from the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, Mohammed Diri according to the source.
It was also gathered that the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami personally assigned the forgery case to the special prosecution team for the “efficient prosecution and management of the case”.
The team was given the freedom to to review the case file “and make necessary adjustments or amendments” where it deemed fit to make for a successful prosecution of the Senate president and the other accused.
The AGF’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Salihu Isah confirmed to Punch newspaper that the forgery case had been reassigned to the special prosecution team.
He said, “The prosecutors, 80 in all, are constituted into 20 teams. After they were trained, cases have been assigned to the first six and one of the cases is the Saraki’s case that you mentioned.”
Isah revealed that the cases assigned to the various teams varied from terrorism to corruption cases, among others.
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