Atuche: Recalled Witnesses Delay Closure of EFCC Case

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had concluded plan to round off the N25billion theft case instituted against a former managing director of Bank PHB (now Keystone Bank), Mr. Francis Atuche and two others, Elizabeth Atuche and Ugo Anyanwu but for the recall of two witnesses by the court at its last sitting.

EFCC lead counsel, Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, disclosed this on Wednesday, January, 30, 2013 before Justice Lateefa Okunnu of the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja.  According to him, the EFCC planned to close the case against the former bankers on Wednesday, January 30,  after presenting all its witnesses and concluded all its submissions but for the recall of  Diamond Uij and Elizabeth Ebi by the court at its last sitting on January 28, 2013.  

 “The EFCC would  have liked to conclude the on- going trial finally today, but as it were, we are handicapped by the court ruling on Monday, January 28, 2013, ordering the recall of  two principal witnesses, Mr Diamond Uji  and Mrs Elizabeth Ebi”, Pinheiro said.  The recall of the two witnesses followed an application filed before the court by lead defence counsel, Anthony Idigbe, SAN and third defence counsel, S. Ogwemoh, praying the court to recall them.  Pinheiro, dissatisfied by the recall of the two witnesses, asked the court how the witnesses will be addressed- prosecution or defence witnesses? Justice Okunnu said that they will be addressed as court witnesses.  

 At the court session on Wednesday, Ogwemoh continued with the cross examination of the prosecution witness, Adama Hamma Bello. He asked the witness if he was conversant with the term PLD (Post Loan Debit) and who can authorize it in the bank. In response, Bello said he was familiar with the term and that anyone could authorize it. He further explained that in the particular case of Atuche, it was Anyanwu that instructed the Compliant Officer of the former PHB, Teresa Ekon to grant it. Besides, Bello said that the authorization of PLD was a back door transaction involving only staff who were loyal to Atuche.   

 Ogwemoh asked Bello if Ebi applied for any loan (dubbed hoax loan in the case) and he said Ebi did not apply for such a loan. Bello also said that she didn’t use any of her companies to apply for the loan. “In the course of investigation, we found out that she was paid well over N110million and they called it concealment money”. Bello also said in response to a question posed by Ogwemoh whether Ebi reported any suspicious transaction in her account and he said she did not make such a report.   Justice Okunnu, after listening to all the submissions, adjourned the case till February 11, and March 4 and 8, 2013 for the cross examination of the recalled witnesses.

EFCC Arraigns four Over Illegal Banking

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 arraigned the quartet of Edet Esim, Idowu Abiodun Olufela, Al- Qassim Counsel Baiye and their company, Trim Multipurpose Cooperative Society before Justice A. R. Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja for allegedly operating banking business without a valid banking license issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The suspects pleaded not guilty to the two count charge when it was read to them.

One of the charge reads: “that you Mr Edet Esim being the Chief Executive Officer of Trim Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Idowu Abiodun Olufela being the Head of Operations of Tim Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Al-Quassim Counsel Baiye being the Managing Director of Trim Multipurpose  Cooperative Society  on or about the 2^nd day of February 2001 to July 2010 in Abuja within the Jurisdiction of this Court with the intent to defraud carried on a banking business without a valid banking license by the Central Bank of Nigeria and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 2(1) of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, Cap B3 LFN 2004 and punishable under Section 2(2) of the same Act”.

EFCC counsel, Best Owie then asked the court to fix a date for trial in view of the plea of the accused persons. But defence counsel, Anthony O. Agbonlahor informed the court that the charge was served on the accused persons yesterday and that he intends to make a formal application for bail for the accused persons.

Justice A. R. Mohammed adjourned the matter to 27^th February, 2013 for trial and ordered that the accused persons be remanded in Kuje Prison.

Girl tortured, burned and then dumped at a hospital by her father

This is the face of an innocent three-year-old girl who was dumped at a hospital after allegedly being beaten, burned and tortured by her father.
The little girl, identified only as Amna, was found wandering the halls of Kuwait Hospital in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, crying, after she was abandoned at the facility over the weekend.
Her father has been arrested and is being charged with torturing and abandoning the child, police in Sharjah said.

Dumped: The little girl, identified only as Amna, was found crying and wandering the halls of Kuwait Hospital in Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates, where she was abandoned after being beaten and tortured

Col Abdul Qader Al Amiri, the acting director of Sharjah CID, told English language newspaper The National that social media and newspapers had contributed to quickly finding the parents of the girl, who has been identified only as Amna.
The woman who found Amna at around midnight on Saturday at Kuwait Hospital in Sharjah managed to calm her down, and eventually handed her over to the police when she could not locate the girl's parents.
Police said a medical check-up revealed Amna had been beaten and tortured. Burns were also found on her body, the report said.

Her father, who is Arab, was arrested at a resort in Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.
According to the report the man told police he had left his daughter at the hospital in the hope that somebody would take care of her, as he was unable to look after her.
He said his first wife, who holds a foreign passport, refused to take care of his daughter and his other children.

Relatives of Amna's father claimed he began torturing the three-year-old after her mother, who is understood to be Ethiopian, left the country.
He would tell his daughter he planned to dump her in the street, they said.
Amna has no identification documents and could not travel with her mother, the report said.

He also said the girl’s mother was Ethiopian and benefited from the amnesty.

Amna has no identification documents and could not travel with her mother.

Col Al Amiri said that the forensic laboratory of Sharjah Police were carrying out a DNA test to confirm the arrested man is Amna's father.

These kinds of acts from parents against their children are crimes against human rights, he said.

The girl has been sent to a Sharjah social care home and her father’s case will be sent to the public prosecutors after the results of the laboratory tests.

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Mother-of-four, 35, has been giving her daughter alcohol since the age of THREE 'so she would grow to be a good drinking partner'

A party-loving mother has admitted giving her daughter alcohol from the age of three so that she would be able to 'drink properly' as a teenager.
Doctors have condemned 35-year-old Shannon Burrows after her startling confession that she gave daughter Jamie Lee, now 20, her first taste of alcohol as a small child.
The youngster was drinking cans of Fosters every weekend and had a bottle of vodka to share with a friend to mark her 15th birthday.

Party lover: Shannon Burrows, 35, right, first gave her 20-year-old daughter Jamie Lee, left, a taste of alcohol at the age of three

By the time she hit the legal drinking age of 18, she was able to hit the town and match her mother drink for drink until 4am.
Mother Shannon said: 'We love getting drunk together, if she loses control, I look after her and vice versa.
'We are like best mates. We have a great time'
But GP Dr Sarah Jarvis warned children should not drink alcohol and warned that drinking from an early age may have damaged Jamie Lee's health.

Drinker: Jamie Lee, now 20, was drinking two cans of Fosters a weekend by the age of 14

She warned that drinking alcohol may have damaged her daughter's brain development, long-term memory and liver.
According to the doctor, she may have developed a psychological addiction to alcohol.
Shannon, from Doncaster, south Yorkshire, pays for her heavy drinking partly with money earned by her landscape gardener husband John, 50, and her £180 per month child benefit.
Husband John looks after their other children - two sons aged 12 and a daughter of nine - while she goes out drinking with unemployed Jamie Lee once a week.
Shannon told Closer magazine she wanted her daughter to drink 'properly' so that she would have a 'party buddy' when her daughter reached legal drinking age.

She said that she knew Jamie Lee would go out and get wasted on her 18th birthday if she had no experience of drinking alcohol before hand.
She revealed that, after getting drunk together, the pair nurse their hangovers together and share a fry-up.
Shannon said that although she knows that some people will disapprove of her attitude towards alcohol, she says that her parenting skills have never been criticised by friends and that she knows what is best for her children.
Shannon started drinking herself at 14 and would often get so drunk that she collapsed in the street.
On some occasions she had to be taken home by police.
The mother said that she does not worry about her daughter's health because teenagers are 'resilient'.
Jamie Lee has been unemployed since leaving her job at a clothes shop six months ago.
She says that she is grateful that her mother built up her resistance to alcohol.
But Dr Jarvis, a clinical consultant with the website patient.co.uk, said that drinking at a young age did not build up a person's tolerance to alcohol.
She told Closer magazine that early drinking just allows the body to take in more alcohol.
According to Dr Jarvis, Jamie Lee will now have to drink more in order to feel the same effects.
She recommended that women drink no more than three units of alcohol in one sitting.

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Father, 27, 'killed his five-month-old son by shaking him as his mother was buying Christening clothes'

LEE

A father fatally shook his baby boy while his mother was buying Christening clothes, a court heard today.
Lee Clark, 27, is accused of injuring five-month-old Charlee and causing brain damage while the baby's mother Natalie Holmes was shopping, a jury was told.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that Charlee was 'smiling' and 'happy' when Natalie left the family home for Darlington, County Durham, on February 25, 2011 at around 10.45am.
But when she returned to the home Gainford, County Durham, at 3pm, the baby, who was due to baptized two days later, was making a 'funny groaning sound', his 'eyes were rolling backwards' and he had bruises on each knee.
Charlee was taken to Darlington Memorial Hospital where it was obvious he was 'extremely ill', the court was told.
He was given oxygen and a brain scan during which Clark asked a nurse if Charlee's injuries could have been caused by 'shaking a baby', the jury heard.
The scan showed that Charlee was suffering from bleeding round the brain, a swollen brain, bleeding at the back of his eyes and in his eyes, prosecutor Andrew Roberts told the court.
Attempts were made to treat Charlee in the intensive care unit but he died days later on March 1.
His Christening had been due to take place on Sunday, February 27.
Mr Roberts said: 'Charlee, happy and normal, was left in the sole care of this defendant.
'The Crown allege that it was while he was alone with Charlee in the home that this offence occurred.
'Something must have happened while he was alone with Charlee because all the evidence shows he gripped and shook him vigorously.
'The first indication that Miss Holmes had that something was not quite right was when she received a text from the defendant saying the baby was unsettled.'
Clark's mother had arrived at the family's home at around 12.10pm that day so the defendant could meet Miss Holmes in Darlington.
Mr Roberts added: 'By that stage Charlee was a very different baby than the one Miss Holmes had left.
'Charlee was in his swing whinging and grizzling.
'When the defendant's mother tried to lift Charlee out of the swing, Charlee let out a scream.'
Clark denies manslaughter.
The trial continues.

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Was internet dating behind murder at Cherry Tree Cottage? Police arrest man after woman, 44, is found dead by colleague who came to pick her up for work

A woman suspected of being murdered in her idyllic cottage was a prolific user of dating websites, it emerged last night.
The body of Debbie Levey, 44, was found slumped in front of the TV by a colleague who called in to give her a lift to work.
Police originally believed the divorcee died of natural causes – she had had cancer surgery and was off work until last week.
But detectives launched a murder inquiry after uncovering evidence of foul play.
Last night they were questioning a 45-year-old man, believed to be her on-off boyfriend, on suspicion of murder.
Mrs Levey lived with her 16-year-old daughter Jade in £300,000 Cherry Tree Cottage in East Ashling, near Chichester, in the South Downs National Park.
Murder squad detectives are working to untangle the complex personal life of the popular twice-married mother and care home manager.
Mrs Levey was a regular user of dating websites and friends said she had been in several relationships over the past year.
A keen horse rider, she posted online photographs of herself out with friends and answered personal questions in an anonymous singles forum.
But it is believed she also met men, including the suspect in custody, who lives in nearby Selsey, through her extensive network of friends.

Mrs Levey was discovered dead shortly before 8am on Monday at her semi-detached home of ten years on a quiet country lane.
She had suffered no obvious injuries and friends told police the last time she was seen alive was around lunchtime on Sunday.

Detective Chief Inspector Ian Pollard, of the Surrey and Sussex major crime team, said officers became ‘increasingly suspicious’ after being called in by paramedics.
‘As yet, the cause of her death is unexplained and we are awaiting the results of a post-mortem examination,’ he said. ‘Our inquiries lead us to believe that this was not a natural death and a murder inquiry has been launched.’
Eric Bulbeck, a 77-year-old farmer who owns the cottage, said Mrs Levey was found by a colleague who let herself in through an unlocked door.

The body of Deborah Levey is carried out of her home

‘Debbie’s manager came round to pick her up, they were going to London for a meeting,’ he added.
‘She waited outside the house then phoned her but got no response. She went round the back and the door was unlocked and that was when she saw her.
‘She came back here and I had to go in to confirm it. She was just sitting on the settee with a rug around her shoulders.

‘The television was on the standby screen as if it had been on. It was horrifying – she has been a friend for a long time and my wife is friendly with her.’  Mr Bulbeck said his tenant had been seeing a man who worked as a taxi driver in Selsey, near Chichester.
He added that Mrs Levey was a ‘good friend, a brilliant tenant and a lovely lady’ who was known for being excellent at her job.
Police want to trace anyone who saw a blue Vauxhall Vectra parked in a small lay-by on the opposite side of the road to her home. Mrs Levey lived alone after splitting from her second husband, Gareth Allen, 44, who lives in Selsey with his second wife Sharron.
Louise Chater, her former sister-in-law, said the couple remained on good terms and continued to share the responsibility of bringing up Jade, a college student.
She added: ‘Debbie was a kind and beautiful person. She was a proud mother and had brought up a beautiful daughter.’
Mrs Levey worked as a manager at the Leaholme care home and assisted living accommodation for elderly people in Chichester.
A former colleague said she seemed to be ‘upbeat’ about returning to work.
He said: ‘In recent months she had been dating a few guys, her status on Facebook had gone from being in a relationship to single on a number of occasions.’
Another friend said Mrs Levey was diagnosed with cervical cancer last year and had a hysterectomy just before Christmas.
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Gang of thieves stole SIX MILES of copper wiring worth £700,000 bringing down telephone services and hitting the rail network

THE STOLEN CABLES

A gang of thieves stole nearly six miles of copper cables causing more than £700,000 worth of damage, a court heard today.
Christopher Cruz, 33, and his crew ripped the wiring from train tracks and telephone lines during a four-month crime spree across London, Hertfordshire, Essex, Leicestershire and Buckinghamshire in 2011.
Five members of the gang, consisting of six men from in Basildon, Essex, were today sentenced to 12 years in jail.
The gang carried out their night-time raids between May 1 and August 30, 2011, stealing six miles of cable, weighing 31,654 lbs, from Network Rail alone.
They used a van to rip underground cable out through manholes as well as cutting down live overhead cables near to railway lines across south England.
Attacking cables armed with circular saws, hacksaws and nail removers, the crew would wear high-visibility jackets in order to pose as workmen, even placing a yellow flashing light on top of their van.
They also cut off thousands of British Telecom landlines by chopping away hundreds of metres of cable at a time, Blackfriars Crown Court heard.

‘The consequences go beyond simple theft, and pose a significant detrimental effect on the operation of the national railway network,’ said prosecutor Richard Beynon.
‘The delays and disruption divert human resources from work elsewhere to carry out repairs, and financial cost for replacing the cables is significant.

‘Also, stealing the copper earthing cable from the stanchion supporting a high currency system can mean the stanchion itself could become live, with obvious huge dangers to those nearby.’

Mr Beynon said up to 1,000 BT customers were affected in one hit, leading not only to inconvenience but potentially putting people who live in remote areas in danger as it rendered them unable to contact emergency services.

One incident saw some 2,700ft of copper cable stolen from BT, affecting 400 customers.
Describing an attack on the rail line through Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, on May 25, 2011, Mr Benyon added: ‘Network Rail received reports of a fault and small line-side fires. About 1,000 metres of cable had been stolen.’

The gang were stopped after repeatedly targeting train lines in Bishop’s Stortford, Sawbridgeworth, and Spellbrook, in Hertfordshire and Boreham and Billericay, in Essex.
They also took trips further afield, staying together in a Travel Lodge in Leicestershire to carry out midnight raids.
The gang would often cut up the cable on site and sold most of the copper to a scrap metal dealer in Barking, Essex.
Passing sentence this afternoon, Judge John Hillen called the thieving crew a co-operative, saying he did not see any of the men as a leader.
Judge Hillen said: ‘This was one of the largest series of railway thefts ever undertaken to investigate by the British Transport Police.’
He said the gang were made up of ‘hitherto petty thieves’ but because of the disruption caused, he must pass immediate prison sentences as a deterrent to others.

Mr Cruz, who has 14 previous convictions was picked out as a leading participant and jailed for three years and nine months.
Simon Scott, 45, another main player and the most prolific criminal of the group with 46 convictions for 108 offences, was jailed for three and a half years.
Bill Lee, 50, is already serving a four and a half year prison sentence for crimes dating back to 2002, but was only imprisoned upon his arrest in 2011 after nine years on the run.
He was jailed for two years today, to run consecutively to his current sentence.
Kris Kreuder, 36, a recovering heroin addict who worked as a ceiling construction worker with Cruz, was jailed for 16 months.
Shaun Nembhard, 44, the gang’s lookout, was sentenced to serve two years and three months behind bars.
The sentencing hearing for John Michael Newton, 36, will be heard on March 22.
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