In its bid to further confirm its
case against Alhaji Sule Lamido, a former governor of Jigawa state, the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has presented four witnesses to
testify against him.
Lamido, who is being prosecuted on a 27-count charge
alongside his two sons Aminu Sule Lamido and Mustapha Sule Lamido and two
others were presented before Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High
Court sitting in Abuja on Wednesday, October 21, as their trial formally
started.
Longji Tupkop, a relationship manager with United Bank
of Africa, UBA; Kabir Mashi, regional manager, Unity Bank Plc, Kano North;
Mustapha Baba and Onyiche Agbaghara of Unity Bank Plc and Keystone Bank were
the witnesses who testified as PW1, PW2, PW3 and PW4 respectively.
Former Jigawa state governor,
Sule Lamido is facing serious corruption allegations by the EFCC alongside his
sons
According to PM News, Tupkop while being led in
evidence by prosecuting counsel, Chile Okoroma, stated that his presence was to
reveal account statements for one of the bank’s customers: Dantata and Sawoe
Construction Company.
He said: “The first entry on the 23rd of April
2013 was a clearing cheque of over N7m (seven million) in favour of Bamaina
Holdings Limited, another cheque of over N7m (seven million naira) in favour of
Speeds International Limited and yet another cheque of over N7m in favour of
Gada Construction.
“The same sets of cheques were however paid to all the
three companies on the 26th of April 2013.”
In the same, Mashi, whose code name was PW2, testified
that his bank was subpoenaed and that, he was in court to tender the statement
of account and account opening packages of Speeds International Limited,
Bamaina Holdings Limited and Alhaji Sule Lamido.
The admissibility of the document was however
contested by Joe Agbi, SAN, who argued that the subpoena was specific about which
documents to bring.
He also stated further that Mashi only brought the
application for the reactivation of the account which presupposes that an
account already existed.
Agbi said: “The witness is a ‘special witness’
subpoenaed by the court to bring certain documents and since all court orders
must be obeyed, the witness must bring the particular documents he was asked to
bring” as he sought the court’s permission to disregard the documents.
Okoroma responded saying that the document is
admissible based on its relevance saying, noting that relevance governs
admissibility, and urged the court to overrule the objection of the defence.
The presiding judge admitted the documents in evidence
saying it was relevant and admissible and after hearing other witnesses and
admitting their documents in evidence, adjourned the case to November 24 and 25
for further hearing.
The case before Lamido and his sons is that of alleged
abuse of post as governor between 2007 and 2015, as he awarded contracts to
companies where he had interest, as the two sons fronted.
They were initially
arraigned in July by the EFCC and granted bail, before their appearance
again at the court ahead of the trial.Brought to you by #HumbleInformat @Ephraimabuh
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Source: Naij.com
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