The trial of former Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, was on Thursday adjourned until October after the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Abuja suspended proceedings to honour his lead counsel, former Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Kanu Godwin Agabi (SAN), who turned 80 on Wednesday.

Justice Sylvanus Oriji fixed October 14, 15, 20 and 28, 2026, for the continuation of the high-profile trial after granting an application by the prosecution for the adjournment.

The request was made by prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), who urged the court to allow Agabi time to celebrate the milestone with members of his family and well-wishers. The application was not opposed by other defence counsel.

In granting the request, Justice Oriji also urged both the prosecution and defence to use the interval before the next hearing to explore the possibility of an amicable resolution of the matter outside the courtroom.

The case had been scheduled for the continuation of the cross-examination of the 12th prosecution witness (PW12), Christopher Odofia, an investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

At Wednesday’s proceedings, Odofia made a series of admissions under cross-examination that the defence argued weakened the prosecution’s case against the former minister.

The witness told the court that Sirika neither initiated nor signed procurement documents relating to the N2 billion contract awarded to Tianaero Nigeria Limited (TNL), a company owned by aviation consultant Gabriel Tilmann.

According to him, the procurement documents forwarded to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) were signed by the then Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Aviation, Abel Enitan, who served as the ministry’s accounting officer.

Odofia further acknowledged that there was nothing in the documents before the court to indicate that Sirika directed or induced Enitan to seek the Bureau’s approval.

Responding to questions from Agabi, the EFCC investigator confirmed that Exhibit 9 — Enitan’s letter requesting a waiver for selective tendering — and Exhibit 11, the Bureau’s response granting the request, contained no evidence directly linking Sirika to the procurement process.

When specifically asked whether either document suggested that the former minister influenced the Permanent Secretary’s actions, the witness replied that there was nothing to that effect.

He added that Enitan acted in his statutory capacity as accounting officer in implementing the Bureau’s approval.

Despite those acknowledgements, Odofia maintained that the contract should not have been awarded to TNL because the company had been incorporated barely a year before receiving the contract.

Under further questioning, the witness admitted that the decision on whom to prosecute rests exclusively with the prosecution after the defence asked why Enitan was not charged alongside Sirika if investigators considered the procurement process to have been compromised.

Earlier in the proceedings, the prosecution tendered a flash drive containing what it described as an audio recording of Sirika allegedly directing Enitan on the award of a contract connected to the Nigeria Air project.

In the recording played before the court, the speaker was heard instructing that the contractor—described as someone who had founded seven airlines globally and served as both a trainee captain and chief pilot—should neither be overpaid nor unfairly treated.

The court admitted the flash drive as Exhibit 37B after the defence reserved its objections to the admissibility of the evidence until the final written addresses.

The EFCC is prosecuting Sirika and three others on an amended six-count charge bordering on alleged contract fraud involving Al-Buraq Global Investment Limited, a company the anti-graft agency claims is linked to the former minister’s daughter.

The Commission alleges that contracts valued at about N2.8 billion were structured to confer an unfair advantage on TNL in relation to the Nigeria Air project.

Sirika and his co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The defence maintains that the Nigeria Air initiative was conceived before Sirika assumed office, having originated from a presidential committee set up under former President Muhammadu Buhari. It further argues that the project was implemented under a Public-Private Partnership framework, with procurement processes supervised by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission and other statutory agencies, rather than by the minister personally.