A Federal High Court sitting in Kano has adjourned further hearing in a $1.3 million financial scam suit filed by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) against Abdulkarim Abdulsalam Zaura. 
     
Justice Mohammad Nasir Yunusa adjourned the matter following the absence of prosecution witnesses and filing of a new application by the defence counsel.
   
Zaura, an international businessman, is standing trial for an alleged $1.3 million scam against a Kuwaiti business partner, sometime in 2018.
  
The case was earlier struck out for lack of substance by a Federal High Court in 2021, but reinstated for retrial by the court of Appeal.
     
At the resumed hearing of the matter, the prosecuting counsel, Sadiq Usaini, who could not furnish the court with any cogent reasons for the absence of his witnesses, pleaded with the court to produce it at a later date.
   
Counsel to the defendant, Isyaka Dikko SAN, who did not oppose the application, however, filed a fresh motion on notice, seeking for a stay in the criminal proceeding.
  
According to the defence counsel, the application became pertinent pending the hearing and determination of an appeal filed against the suit at the Supreme Court.
    
In a counter argument, the EFCC’s lawyer insisted that the application was not ripe for hearing.
   
He urged the court to discountenance the fresh motion, arguing that since the application was not slated for hearing, the court ought not to have heard the new application.
  
After taking the submissions of counsel in the matter, Justice Yunusa, overruled the EFCC’s position and insisted that the application was ripe for hearing since the prosecution had filed a counter-affidavit to the motion on notice since April 17, 2023.

Justice Yunusa, who stepped down the motion to enable the prosecution to respond to the further and better affidavits moved by the defendant, adjourned to May 31 and June 1, 2023, for hearing of the motion and continuation of the trial.