The second prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Alex Badeh, over allegation of fraud on Wednesday told a Federal High Court that his statement to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was made in error.
The witness, Emmanuel Abu, a cashier with the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Camp, Mogadishu Cantonment, admitted this during cross examination by Badeh’s counsel, Akin Olujimi (SAN).
The witness had, in his statement to the EFCC, stated that he sourced the sum of $3.1m and gave it to Group Captain Sinni after the sum of N76 million was transferred to HAVCO Nig. Ltd from the N558 million set aside monthly for the office of the Chief of Air Staff (CAS).
But in his evidence in chief before the court, the witness said $2.9 million was given to Group Captain Mohammed L. Sinni, the Camp Finance Officer for the month of May, 2013.
“In the course of your evidence, you gave a list of dollars you gave to the CFO every month and for the month of May 2013, you said you gave $2.9 million to Sinni whereas in your statement at the EFCC, you said $3.1 million was sourced by you,” Olujimi asked the witness.
Responding, the witness said: “The statement with the EFCC was in error. I confirm that it was an error while writing the statement”.
Also, when asked if there is any record showing that he gave money monthly to Sinni, the witness said no.
“I have no records of what I gave to Sinni monthly because the CFO (Sinni) was a custodian of everything, I was only assisting him.
“All payments made either by mandate or cash was signed by the CFO and myself but I received the dollars from the Bureau de Change (BDC) because I was the one interfacing with them”.
Also, when Olujimi put it before the witness that it would be correct to say that the only record that exists to show that the witness monthly disbursed dollar equivalent of N558m to Sinni was “only in his head”, the witness said yes.
Also when the witness was asked to corroborate the claim of the Director of Finance and Accounts, Air Commodore Abdullahi Yushau (rtd), who said that the usually converted N558m was given to him first in October 2012, the witness said he doesn’t know adding that the first time he gave the N558m dollar equivalent to Sinni was in November, 2012.
“I wouldn’t know if someone gave Yushau the dollar equivalent of the N558m in October, 2012,” he said.
The witness, who said he was given a verbal instruction by Sinni in 2012 shortly after Sinni assumed the position of Camp Finance Officer (CFO) to set aside the sum of N558m monthly for training and operations, admitted that he never received any instruction from the first defendant (Badeh).
He also admitted Badeh never asked him to give him any money either in Naira or Dollar.
He further stated that Badeh did not, at any time, instruct him to make any withdrawal or transfer to any person or company.
According to the witness, the first time he met Badeh was on May 9, 2016 just outside the courtroom, just as he told the court that he does not know if the usual practice of setting aside N558m for the office of CAS was there before November, 2012.
Earlier, the witness who said he joined the Air Force in 2004 as a commissioned flying officer, added that his schedule of duty is to assist the Camp Financial Officer in all financial transactions, book-keeping and interfacing with banks and BDCs.
He also gave a breakdown of how monies and transfers were made between November 2012 and December 2013.
Following the conclusion of the cross-examination by the defence counsel and the absence of further questions by the prosecution for re-examination, trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, adjourned further hearing till May 18, 2016.
