The trial of a former governor of Plateau State,
Joshua Dariye, continued on Monday, October 17, 2016 before Justice Adebukola
Banjoko of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Gudu, Abuja, with a
defence witness, Paul Datugum, a staff in the Office of the Accountant-General,
Plateau State Ministry of Finance, failing to substantiate an alleged raid by
operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on the
Ministry in 2005.
At today’s sitting, Datugum, who claimed to have
worked in the State Ministry of Education between 2000 and 2006, told the court
that his predecessor in the Central Cash Unit of the Office of the
Accountant-General, the late Bala Kwafur, did not hand over any document to him
because ‘‘EFCC staff had invaded and taken away all the documents in the
Ministry of Finance by the time I was posted there.’’
Datugum, who is the seventh defence witness,
DW7, said: ‘‘On that fateful day, I was in the Ministry of Education when
we saw people from the Ministry of Finance running helter-skelter. Then, we saw
a Hilux bus parked outside the Ministry of Finance and staff of EFCC were
packing documents from the Office of the Accountant-General.’’
However, under cross-examination by the counsel
to the EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, Datugum, who admitted that the Ministry of
Education building was some metres from the Ministry of Finance, said he did
not see the particular documents that were allegedly carted away by operatives
of the EFCC.
‘‘I did not see the particular documents; I did
not see the contents either. But they were documents because they were packed
inside Bagco bags (Jute bags),’’ he said.
When Jacobs further asked if DW7 saw the
inventory of the documents allegedly taken away by operatives of the EFCC, he
replied in the negative, saying, ‘‘I didn’t see the inventory.’’
The witness also told the court that the late
Kwafur did not give him the inventory of documents allegedly taken by
operatives of the EFCC.
While still cross-examining witness,
Jacobs told the court that the late
Kwafur never mentioned in his statement to the EFCC that documents were moved
away from his office.
When asked if he was aware that the
Accountant-General, Nuhu Madaki, and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of
Finance, had been invited by the EFCC, Datugum, who denied being a politician
or a supporter of the defendant, said: ‘‘ I am not aware that the Accountant-General
has been invited by the EFCC or even charged to court .’’
Jacobs also pointed out to the court that the
Accountant-General had instructed Datugum to search for the same
documents, which he (Datugum) claimed had been carted away by operatives of the
EFCC.
‘‘You remember you said in your
statement that you spent days looking for the documents, without being able to
identify them,’’ Jacobs added.
Responding, DW7 said: ‘‘I was looking for them
for about a week at the Expenditure Control.’’
Justice Banjoko, thereafter, adjourned to
Thursday, October 20, 2016 for the further hearing.
Dariye is being prosecuted by the EFCC for
allegedly siphoning the state’s ecological fund to the tune of N1.16 billion.
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