The N2.2 billion fraud trial of former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose was stalled on Friday as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission accused the ex-governor of going behind to threaten and compromise one of the prosecution witnesses.
The EFCC lawyer, Mr Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), told Justice C.J. Aneke that the anti-graft agency had decided to use another witness in the place of the one allegedly compromised by Fayose.
Jacobs alleged that the defendant went behind to meet and threaten the witness, Adewale Aladegbola, a bullion van driver with Zenith Bank, Ado Ekiti branch.
The prosecutor said as a result of the alleged threat when Aladegbola appeared before Justice Mojisola Olatoregun, who was earlier hearing the case, the witness turned around in his testimony to give different evidence from what he wrote in his statement at the EFCC office during the investigation.
The prosecutor said as a result of the alleged threat when Aladegbola appeared before Justice Mojisola Olatoregun, who was earlier hearing the case, the witness turned around in his testimony to give different evidence from what he wrote in his statement at the EFCC office during the investigation.
Jacobs accused Fayose of attempting to pervert the course of justice, saying, “If not because of my intervention, this defendant would have been facing another charge.”
Source; Punch newspaper
The prosecutor said as a result of the alleged threat when Aladegbola appeared before Justice Mojisola Olatoregun, who was earlier hearing the case, the witness turned around in his testimony to give different evidence from what he wrote in his statement at the EFCC office during the investigation.
Jacobs accused Fayose of attempting to pervert the course of justice, saying, “If not because of my intervention, this defendant would have been facing another charge.”
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2020 budget: FG disowns MDAs over ‘telephone charge’ estimates
…as Reps plan to expunge NITEL bills, other suspicious items
Leke Baiyewu, Abuja
The House of Representatives has queried the allocation of huge amounts of money to suspicious items by Federal Government’s ministries, departments and agencies in the national budget on an annual basis.
Such item, according to the House Committee on Finance, include ‘telephone charge’ which used to be charged by the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, a government-owned telephone monopoly that has ceased to function since over 20 years ago.
The lawmakers also queried allocation of funds to furniture and equipment every year, facilities which they said should not be changed annually.
The issue was raised when the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Budget, Aisha Ahmed, appeared before the lawmakers in Abuja on Thursday to defend the 2020 budget proposed by the ministry.
Chairman of the committee, James Faleke, said, “They don’t have to buy furniture every year. Here in the National Assembly, we don’t buy furniture every year. But when you look at it, it is there in their budgets. And they tell us that, that is the template that the Ministry of Budget gave them and they must put money. Which means they know that they don’t need it but they just have to allocate money to it.”
Responding, Ahmed said, “This is a matter that is also of concern to us on the budget. We have to enhance our supervision to make sure that procurements are not repeated.”
The minister, however, explained that due to paucity of fund, some MDAs had been forced to split their demands and spread the budget for acquisition of items over fiscal years.
The lawmakers, however, insisted on telephone charges. According to them, NITEL used to issue telephone bills in the 80s. They said people now use mobile phones which are prepaid.
The legislators said years after NITEL had stopped functioning, they see millions of naira being allocated to telephone charge by the MDAs.
Faleke said they were putting the minister “on notice” and they would delete such items from the budget.
Agreeing with the committee, Ahmed said, “On the telephone charges, we will look through the accounts for any vote that is obsolete; we will look beyond telephone to discover such items and provide the list to you.”
According to Wikipedia, NITEL was a monopoly telephone service provider in Nigeria until 1992 when the Federal Government enacted the Nigerian Communications Commission Act to allow new private operators into the telecommunications sector.
“The firm was formed in 1985 as the welding together of two government entities, the telecoms arm of the Post and Telecommunications (P&T) department under the Ministry of Communications and the Nigerian External Communications,” says Wikipedia.
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Tight security in Federal High Court Abuja, as EFCC arraigns Maina, son
Security in and around the Federal High Court, Abuja, was on Friday beefed up by operatives of the Economic Financial Crimes Commission as Abdulrasheed Maina, former Chairman, Pension Reform Task Team, is to be arraigned.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Maina’s son, Faisal, is also being arraigned in the same court on a separate but similar charge.
NAN reports that at Court 6, 2nd Floor of the building, where Justice Okon Abang will be adjudicating, it was filled with a crowd of lawyers and people.
Maina and his son were putting on white caftan with dark blue caps.
The case was, however, yet to be mentioned as at the time of filing the report at 10:30 am.
NAN reports that the anti-graft agency is arraigning the former pension task team chairman on a 12-count bordering on “money laundering, operating fictitious bank accounts and fraud.”
The development is coming after Folashade Ogunbanjo, a judge, ordered the forfeiture of 23 property linked to him.
The judge gave the order following an ex parte motion filed by the EFCC
EFCC’s motion was supported by a 30-paragraph affidavit which is brought pursuant to section 17 of Anti-money Laundering Act.
Maina is accused of being involved in pension fraud running into over N100 billion.
The Federal Civil Service Commission dismissed him in 2013 for “absconding from duty” but he returned to the country in 2017 and was reinstated as a director in the interior ministry.
Following the outrage, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered his dismissal and demanded a probe of his recall.
(NAN)
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