The trial of a former governor of Niger
State, Babangida Aliyu, on an eight-count charge of money laundering to the
tune of N2billion continued on February 21, 2018, before Justice Yalim Suleiman
Bogoro of the Federal High Court, sitting in Minna, Niger State, with prosecution
tendering documents to establish the complicity of the defendant in the alleged
offence.
Nma Abubakar Mohammed, a branch head of
Zenith Bank situated at Paiko Road, Minna 1, Niger State, who testified as PW3,
told the court that the defendant made withdrawals of 10million naira each in
eighty places using the account of I.D Sabin Investment Limited.
Led in evidence by Ben Ikani, counsel to the
EFCC, Mohammed, said he was invited by the EFCC sometime in June 2014 to
clarify some transactions on the account of I.D Sabin Investment Limited, an
account owned by Saidu Nma-Aba Idris.
The witness narrated the procedures required
for opening an account in his branch saying:
"The customer will obtain account
opening form. If it is a corporate account, the customer is required to bring
all documents especially from the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC. There must
be two eligible referees, there must be board resolution authorizing the
opening of the account. There must be means of identification. There must be
public utility receipt. The signatories must provide their passport
photographs. They must also give their mandate on how the account is to be
operated and any other document required shall be involved".
According to the witness, I.D Sabin Investment
met all the requirements while opening the account.
When asked to tell the court about the
inflows into to the account, Mohammed said, “Going through the statements of
account, there were withdrawals of 10million naira each in eighty places and
some other withdrawals”.
The prosecution sought to tender the account
opening package in evidence, after it was shown to the witness and identified
but, Nasko’s counsel, Mamma Mike Osuman, SAN, objected to the admissibility of
the documents on the ground that they did not satisfy the provisions of Section
104 (1) (2) and (3) of the Evidence Act.
Osuman took time to fault each of the
documents and urged the court to reject it in its entirety.
Aliyu’s counsel, Olajide Ayodele, SAN, also
aligned himself with Osuman’s position.
In response, Ikani urged the court to
discountenance the objections of Osuman describing it as “unfounded”.
After listening to the submissions of
counsel, Justice Bogoro held that the document from FIRS; the PHCN document
dated February 28, 2013; the two-page National Identity Card and the documents
from Corporate Affairs Commission (Certificate of Incorporation) were
inadmissible. He believed that the documents, being public documents need
proper certification from appropriate authorities.
However, the judge ruled that “the other
documents from the Zenith bank including: Application To Opening a Corporate
Account; Letter of Set Up, Signatory, Information Form, I.D Sabin Investment
Limited’, addressed to the branch manager Zenith Bank PLC Minna, A Document
Physical Visitation Report of Zenith Bank, Authority to Debit an
Account dated March 2, 2013, Customer mandate, Corporate Account Money
Laundering and Terrorism Financing Risk Assessment Form, Zenith Bank", duly
certified by the PW3 were admissible.
“I shall admit the documents each in
evidence”, the judge said.
Thereafter, the prosecution sought to tender
the Statement of account of I.D Sabin Investment Limited after it had been
identified by the witness. Though its admissibility was objected to by Osuman,
his objection was overruled and the documents were admitted as ‘Exhibits U and
V’.
The court also admitted the cheque books
used for the transactions as ‘Exhibits V1 - V18’.
The PW3 further told the court that the
Niger State Ministry of Environment also had an account with his bank and that
“some inflows came into the account, while some were transferred to I.D. Sabin
Investment limited”.
The account opening document for Ministry of
Environment, Niger state was tendered and admitted as ‘Exhibit S25’.
Similarly, the computer
print of the inflow of the account of Ministry of Environment was also tendered
and admitted as ‘Exhibits AB1 and AB2’.
The matter was thereafter adjourned to April
10 - 11, 2018 for continuation of trial.
Aliyu, fondly referred to as "Chief
Servant" during his time as governor is being prosecuted alongside his
then Chief of Staff, Umar Nasko by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC.
The defendants were accused of laundering
ecological funds released by the Federal Government to Niger State sometime in
2014.
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