EFCC closes case against ex-Gov Akwe Doma
(Nigeria) The trial of a former governor of Nasarawa State, Aliyu Doma, and two others, continued on Thursday, with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, presenting its ninth witness, as it closed its case against the accused persons.
Doma, alongside Timothy Anjide, a former Secretary to the
state government, and Dauda Egwa, a former Accountant-General, are being
prosecuted by the EFCC on a 10-count charge bordering on money laundering and
financial crimes.
The accused persons between January 2007 and December 2009
allegedly conspired and fraudulently laundered state funds to the tune of N8bn, an offence contrary to Section 14(1)(a)
of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act
2004 and punishable under section 14(1) of the same Act.
At Thursday, ’s hearing, PW 9, Abdulrazaq Salawu, an
operative with the EFCC, told the court how he met the defendants, following
different petitions and intelligence report received by the Commission.
Led in evidence by Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, Salawu told the court
that the investigation was carried out to establish the veracity of the
allegations against the defendants.
"During investigation, the team saw movements of funds
from the state government account to the Secretary to the State Government.
Upon this discovery, we invited some of the state officials to give
explanations as to the purpose of such transfers.
"In the course of the investigation, having analysed
the account and discovered that several funds were released, officials in
charge of finances were asked to provide payment vouchers relating to the
release of such funds. Among the vouchers released were those marked 'special
releases’.
‘‘When the team asked Katsa about the purpose of such
releases, he said he could not give explanations. He said that those releases
were done on the instruction of the Secretary of State Government. These
special releases had no approval and no supporting documents to show the
purpose for which the huge sums were meant for," Salawu said.
He further stated that the third defendant confirmed that
monies were released upon receiving mere phone calls.
According to him, "We discovered that monies were
released and were tagged ‘emergencies’.
Most of these releases were without approval.
Dauda Egwa in his statement confirmed that those monies were
released on mere phone calls received from the former governor, Aliyu Akwe
Doma.
It was discovered that monies were released without memos or
approvals, as the officials in charge of finance were only called on the phone
to release such monies on emergency; so, it was not an error of classification.
They were also released based on verbal instructions from the governor.
"Under the
emergency releases , over N15 billion was released. Out of this, about N3bn was
captured as security vote, while another N3bn plus was captured under security
operations. Also, about N5bn was spent under questionable narrations, while
about N1bn was released via phone calls with no memos or approvals.
"All money were disbursed through cash received by the
SSG, as his signature was appended on the payment. But when confronted with the
signature, he was evasive, saying he needed time to check the records.”
Statements of the third defendant were admitted into
evidence as P35, P36 and P37;
statements of the second defendant as P38, P39 and P40 and statements of
the first defendant, Aliyu Akwe Doma, as P41abc and P42 ab, respectively.
The case has been adjourned to November 28, 29, 30 and
December 1, 2016 for continuation of trial.
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