awarded but not yet executed before he assumed Office, and part of his Mandate was to ensure that
the Execution was high priority.
He tendered the following Certified Documents into evidence with Reserved Address on the
Objections raised by the Prosecution, who contended that these Certified Documents pertained to
Correspondence between the Governor of Plateau State and Pinnacle Communications, which were
neither copied nor directed to him or to the Minister of Information. These Certified Documents were
admitted by the Court with a Suspended Objection as follows: A. A Certified Letter from Pinnacle addressed to the Governor of Plateau State dated the 5th of
March 2002 as Exhibit D30;
B. A Letter from the Governor of Plateau State signed by the General Manager of PRTV dated
the 9th of April 2002 as Exhibit D31;
C. A Letter from Harris Systems Limited addressed to Government House in Jos dated the
30th of May 2001 as Exhibit D32. This Letter had attachments, namely: - A Memo written
from the Secretary to the State Government to the State Governor dated the 30th of May
2001 and another Letter from Pinnacle Communications Limited to the Governor of
Plateau State dated the 25th of May 2001, and finally, a Letter written from PRTV to the
Governor of Plateau State dated the 6th of June 2001.
He was shown Exhibits D26A and D26B and he confirmed that he knew Engineer Israel Dabel, as the
Director of Engineering in PRTV and knew of the Award Letter. He had reviewed all the Documents
relating to Pinnacle and he had been part of the Delegation to Harris in the United Kingdom to meet
with its Chief Executive Officer. They were to confirm that the Equipment ordered to be
manufactured, complied with the Specifications before Shipment. This Inspection led to the
Certification by the Director of Engineering, Mr. Dabel and the General Manager of PRTV, whereupon
the Equipment were shipped to Nigeria, subsequently inspected by a Team, before they were
installed.
This Project was of high priority due to the situation of unrest prevalent in the State, which occurred
based on Misinformation. The Provision of this Equipment quelled the unrest, in that, there was now
Real Time Information to the Entire State. Usually, Request for Payments come from the Agency
where it is executed, and Payments are made based on Approval by the Governor and the Availability
of Funds. The Office of the Commissioner of Finance would definitely play a role in the Payment.
He named Members of his Group of Honourable Members of the House of Assembly as well as
Commissioners that wrote and signed a Letter of Petition to the Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom, Mr. Tony Blair through Baroness Cox and had visited the United Kingdom in order to
submit the Petition, which drew the attention of the Prime Minister to the global terror threat
manifesting in Plateau State. They had also recommended the convening of an urgent meeting of the
Heads of Government of Nigeria and some African Countries on the need for action to stem the
killings that was occurring. They had further drawn attention to the truncation of Democracy in
Nigeria. Dr. Patrick Dakum stated that his own Original Document of this Petition was destroyed due
to the flood in his house and he had obtained a Copy from one of his Fellow Petitioners. Due to the fact
that it was an Advocacy, they did not have an Original Copy, and this Copy was submitted and
provisionally admitted as Exhibit D33.
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