How NIMASA's N1.5b was moved into accounts, by witness
AN Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) witness, Teslim Ajuwon, yesterday told a Lagos State High Court sitting in Igbosere that over N1.5billion was transferred from Nigerian Maritime Administration Safety Agency (NIMASA) bank account into that of four companies.
Ajuwon, a compliance officer with a new generation bank, testified before Justice Raliat Adebiyi as the first prosecution witness in a N754,740,680.00 fraud suit brought against a former Director-General of NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi, and six others.
The others are Captain Ezekiel Agaba, Ekene Nwakuche, Governor Amechee Juan, Vincent Udoye, Captain Adegboyega Sahib Olopoenia and a company, Gama Marine Nigeria Limited.
They are standing trial on a 13-count, bordering on stealing and forgery, preferred against them by the EFCC.
Ajuwon testified that on August 29, 2014, there was a transfer of the sum of N498.2million to an account belonging to Committee of Voluntary International Maritime Organisation Member State Audit Scheme (VIMSAS), while on May 20, 2015, N318 million was transferred from NIMASA into the same account.
Led in evidence by the EFCC counsel Rotimi Oyedepo, the witness added that on September 15, 2014, there was a transfer of the sum of N8,550,000 into the account of another company, while N11.4 million was transferred to the account of Liquid Garden Ventures Ltd, on September 29, 2014.
Another company, Kofa Fada Nigeria Ltd, he said, got two transfers of N35 million and N61.8 million on October 30.
On November 19, 2014, NIMASA also made an outward transfer of N4.2million into the account of Specialty Enterprises West Africa Ltd and another outward transfer of N257million in favour of Aroward Consulting Ltd on May 28, 2014.
However, during cross-examination by Akpobolokemi's counsel, Dr. Joseph Nwobike (SAN), the witness admitted that he could not recollect the total number of bank accounts related to the case and that Akpobolokemi was not a signatory to any of the accounts.
He also admitted that the VIMSAS account was an official government account and that he was "not in a position to state what the account was used for."
Ajuwon admitted that the transfers were authorised by NIMASA, but that not being a staff of the agency, he did not know the reasons why the monies were disbursed.
He also agreed that, based on the knowledge at his disposal, some of the defendants did not benefit from the transactions listed.
The defendants' counsels opposed the tendering of some documents by the prosecutor.
They argued that the documents were private documents and needed to be recertified by the EFCC before they could be admitted in court.
But Justice Adebiyi upheld Oyedepo's argument that this was unnecessary.
She ruled: "This letter is being tendered by the maker not the EFCC and it is admissible as it is. It is produced by the maker. The submission by learned counsels that the document requires double certification is unmeritorious and is therefore overruled."
The case was further adjourned to April 20, for continuation of trial.
The 1st to 5th defendants were alleged to have between October 30, 2014 and May 6, 2015 converted to their personal use N346,844,680, property of NIMASA released to them for the implementation of VIMSAS.
The defendants were alleged to have with intent to defraud knowingly forged a document titled: "Re: Request For Payment as consultant for VIMSAS Administration Services", dated May 25, 2015, purported to have been issued by Aroward Consulting Limited.
They were also alleged to have forged a document, titled: Re: Final Invoice for Consultancy services with respect to the development of VIMSAS Implementation framework, Reviews and Updates", dated April, 28, 2015.
Specifically, Captain Olopoenia, Udoye, and Gama Marine Nigeria Limited were alleged to have on February 2, 2015, with a dishonest intent, converted to their own use the sum of N16,000,000, property of NIMASA.
--My People:It is this temptation - and some falling into it - of high public officials in Nigeria to unscrupulously manipulate public bank accounts for private gain, that makes the strict implementation of the Treasury Single Account absolutely necessary. There are of course those who do not like this elimination of temptation that rail against the TSA, but their efforts to scrap or minimize its use must be resisted.A public official opens without authorization a number of bank accounts as head of a "Presidential Committee on Financial Action Task Force", and yet the "(office of) the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Budget Office and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)" were able to pay - or chose to pay - several tranches to these illegal accounts, without verification of prior authorization by the Accountant General's Office. Is that not massive systemic failure? Who else should have done the right thing but the Presidency, SGF, BO and the CBN to ensure that the PCFATF bank accounts were properly set up, if at all?Bank accounts should actually be eliminated altogether, or vastly restricted.What should happen is that if an official Committee is to be established, then the establishing office, in this case the Presidency, should inform the Accountant General, who should then inform the CBN to set up a TSA account for the Committee, complete with names, phone numbers, and signatures of the three or more persons who should be the initiator(s), reviewer(s) and finalizer of the account - none of them being the same person. The finalizer would invariably be the Chief Executive or Chairman. Once this account is so properly set up, then ALL monies for this Committee - whether from other branches of Government (via CBN-account-to-CBN account transfers) or from private sources (bank-to-TSA transfer) - should be paid to this TSA account.Bottom line: A Chief Executive of a public office should have NO REASON to run a bank account on behalf of the government, period. It is a recipe for fraud and corruption, which has destroyed Nigeria all of these years.I pity Oronsaye, an otherwise decent-looking man. The evidence against him seems so overwhelming, as is the evidence against many who have been caught in Buhari's anti-corruption maelstrom.Bolaji AlukoTHIS DAYEFCC Witness Gives More Evidence against Oronsaye
April 14, 2016Tobi Soniyi in Abuja
A witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Jalal Arabi ,on Thursday told Justice Olasunbo Goodluck of an Abuja High Court that a former Head of Service (HoS), Mr. Stephen Oronsaye, allegedly paid millions of naira to people who did no work for the Presidential Committee on Financial Action Task Force .
The prosecution witness, who was the secretary of the committee told the court that apart from Zenith Bank Plc, which was the official bank of the committee, Orosanye secretly opened another account with Access bank, with him as the only signatory to the account.
The witness said between 2009 and 2015, there were inflows of money into the Zenith bank account of the committee in three tranches, from the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Budget Office and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) respectively.He said laid down procedures were followed in justifying any money spent on any programme of the committee, adding that he raised memos for the programmes of the committee and fund was provided, following the approval of the chairman and, "we fund programmes from the Zenith Bank account and sometimes, from the endeavour of the chairman (Orosanye), which I got to know in July, 2015 that the money comes from the secret Access Bank account, sometimes".When led to read from the statement of account obtained from the Access Bank, he said, "In October 14, 2012, the sum of N5 million was paid to one Friday Onoja, N9 million was paid same Friday Onoja on November 11, 2012, And another N3.5 million in the same month.
"Friday Onoja is neither a member of the committee nor did any work for the committee that I know.
"On 6th November, Sunday Oge was paid, N9 million, paid another N9 million on 14th November, N7 million on 21sr November 2012 and on15th January, 2015, another N500. 000 was paid to him without doing any work for the committee.
"On November 27, 2012, Olalekan Ajayi was paid N6million, Mohammed Yaro was paid N500. 000 on 31st October, 2013 and another N900.000 on 14th March, 2015, for doing nothing for the committee.
"Am aware of the N400.000 paid to Udummi Jude Ikechukwu on 24th March, 2015, but not aware of the N5 million, N11.4 million paid to Ezeneka E.N on 23, December, 2014 and March 13, 2015 respectively", the witness stated adding also that Orosanye did not inform him of the secret Access Bank account he opened in the name of the committee.
According to the witness, the committee, in its efforts to fastrack the passage into law of relevant bills pending in the National Assembly (NASS), engaged members of the Assembly in dialogues and that the activities were funded from the Zenith Bank account.
The prosecution, at the end of the witness' testimony prayed the court for an adjournment, saying that there were five more witnesses to be called by the prosecution.
Justice Goodluck then adjourned the matter till May 19 and 20, 2016 for continuation of trial and ordered the prosecution to assemble all its witnesses at the next adjourned date.
Orosanye was charged under section 14 of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004 and section 1(1) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.
The fraud offences were said to be punishable under 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied any wrong doing.
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