- 87 transactions made in one day to offset bank loans
- Cross-examination fixed for April 18
The witness produced by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),
Mr. Michael Wetkas, in the ongoing trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki made
more revelations yesterday.
At
the resumed hearing at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, he testified that Saraki
received monthly salaries and pension from Kwara State years after he had
concluded his two terms as a governor.
Wetkas
said that the Senate president who left office in May 2011 had continued to
receive both monthly salaries and pension from June 2011 till August 31, 2015.
The witness provided details of payment, which he said, were the outcome of the
investigation his team conducted.
He
said: “In May 2011, Saraki was paid N291,134.00 as salary. In June, he was paid
N572,286.32. In August, he was paid N744,002.22k. In September, he received
N743,942.22. In October the same year, he was paid N1,165,466.12. In December,
he received the same amount as October but twice (December 27 and 28, 2011
respectively)
“He
continued to receive the same amount monthly as pension and salary respectively
until August 31, 2015, when the payment stopped after the case had been filed
against him by the EFCC.”
The
witness also informed the tribunal of several lodgments by different
individuals, the highest of which was as much as 87 times in one day into the
defendant’s naira account.
He
said: “On October 26, 2009, there were cash deposits by different individuals
for up to 87 transactions. These payments were made in order to raise money to
pay back the loans collected from the Guarantee Trust Bank. Before the payment,
the account was in debit balance.”
On
the likely reasons for different lodgments, the witness said it might not be
unconnected with the Money Laundering Act, which criminalised single heavy
lodgments. Hence, the amount was decimated into several lodgments.
Wetkas
also testified that deposit slips were suspiciously filled in and sometimes,
one handwriting was observed to have been used in filling in most of the
deposit slips.
According
to him, the bank management had said during investigations that the suspicious
transactions were reported to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit.
The
witness was brought in by EFCC counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, Tuesday after the
defence counsel, Paul Usoro, who stood in for Saraki’s lead counsel, Chief Kanu
Agabi (SAN), failed to secure an adjournment from the tribunal.
As
the court resumed on Tuesday, Usoro had asked the tribunal for an adjournment
to enable the Court of Appeal to determine the fate of an application brought
before it by Saraki. This was, however, turned down by the Chairman of the
tribunal, Mr. Danladi Umar, who insisted that the trial must begin as
scheduled.
Saraki
had shortly before the Easter break, lost his application whereby he prayed the
tribunal to strike out the trial as the CCT lacked the jurisdiction to hear the
case.
But
in his ruling, Umar said the tribunal had the jurisdiction to hear the case
bordering on the discrepancies in the assets declaration form filled in and
submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau by Saraki. He consequently set April 5
for the commencement of trial.
All
the documents tendered so far by the prosecution counsel were admitted in
evidence and marked as exhibits one to 25. This followed the analysis of the
documents supporting the claims earlier made by the witness on Tuesday.
The
efforts of the defence counsel to convince the tribunal against the time- consuming
process proved abortive as he was overruled.
In
the course of tendering the documented evidence, the witness told the tribunal
that his team had requested the three personal accounts belonging to Saraki
(defendant) from GTB.
“Part
of the requests was the loans statement on the naira account which was
provided. The same letter of request was sent to banks on his dollar and pounds
sterling accounts.
“The
submitted documents were to support our claims that in November 5, 2009, there
were cash lodgments by several individuals.There were also documents to support
the N375 million which was used to purchase landed property in London”, the
witness said.
Others
were letter of response received from the banks, telex transfer document for
transactions on foreign accounts; petitions from Kwara Freedom Network dated
June 7, 2012, asking EFCC to investigate the monthly revenue account between
2003 and 2011 of the 16 Local Government Areas in Kwara State as well as other
petitions emanating from Concerned Pensioners of Nigeria, Kwara State chapter.
In
his response, counsel to Saraki, Agabi, expressed the need to carefully study
the documents tendered by the prosecution and consequently reserved his
objection.“It is on record that you have reserved your objections for now”, the
chairman noted.
Continuing,
the witness stated that N380 million was accessed as loan from GTB and that on
the same day, there were two drafts drawn in favour of Presidential
Implementation Committee for the Sales of Government Houses for N256,312,815.
“On
October 16, 2006, the sum of N12.8 million was raised also in favour of
Presidential Implementation Committee for the Sales of Government Houses. Each
draft drawn for the committee was meant for the purchase of landed properties.
“On
February 5, 2007, there was another loan disbursement by GTB of N380 million.
On February 27, there was a cash deposit of N3 million by one Samuel. On April
5, there was a telegraphic transfer from the defendant for N180.6 million from
the same account.
“As
I said on Tuesday, on September 5, 2007, one Ubi made five lodgments in five
tranches the same day for N11million, N20 million, N20 million, N20 million and
N6 million – totalling N77 million. The account was in a debit balance to the
tune of N31.9 million.
“On
November 22, 2007, there were cash lodgments into the accounts by Abdul Adama
in 50 different transactions totalling about N45 million. Before then, the
account was in a debit balance of N80.2 million. On November 29, there were
cash lodgements by Ubi numbering over 20 transactions totalling about N20
million.
“On
March 2008, there were cash lodgments by different individuals. Before then,
the account was in a debit balance of N96.8million. On April 18, 2008, there
were also cash lodgments by several individuals. September 23, there were
several cash lodgments by different individuals, different names. April 30,
2009, there was a draft in favour of BGL Assets Management Limited for N400
million. Before the payment that same day, there were several cash lodgments by
different individuals.
“There
was one N65 million lodgment after which there was a loan disbursement of N400
million, followed by several lodgments by different individuals.”
On
the dollar account, the witness stated that “on May 18, 2009, there was a cash
lodgment by Todimu for $8,000. There was also another cash deposit of $4,000 by
a banker, Bayo and another $8,000. The three transactions amounted to $20,000.
On May 19, there were 18 transactions of $10,000 each. The last three were
deposited by the defendant personally.
“On
June 12, 2009, there was cash deposit of $50,000 by one Garba Dare. On August
21, there was $99,975 deposit by one Bin Dahuuh, an operator of a bureau de
change. On August 26, $49,969 was deposited by Carlisle Property and Investment
Limited. On September 7, $59,964 was deposited by the same company.
“Transfers
from this account were made to American Express Services Europe Limited … From
investigation, the transfers from this account to American Express Services
Europe Limited account amounted to $3,400,000. Part of the outflows from the
account was to the pounds sterling account.
“The
defendant gave the instruction to transfer the funds and American Express Bank,
New York is the beneficiary”, the witness said.
He,
however, told the tribunal that the pounds sterling account had only six
transactions – three deposits and three outflows of over £1,516,000.
Agabi
prayed the tribunal to adjourn till another day as the day was far gone but
Umar objected, stressing that the trial was at a crucial stage and it was not
good to stop halfway.
He
added that he was ready for day-to-day trial and if he was not tired, the
parties directly involved in the case should not complain of tiredness.
When
the parties finally agreed to adjourn after 5:00 p.m., the chairman fixed April
18 for the continuation of the prosecution witness’ testimony after which the
defence counsel would be expected to take cross examination.
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