An Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) witness, Femi Remigus, on Monday refused to confirm the legality of bank entries in the trial of Ali Bello, the Chief of Staff to Gov. Usman Ododo of Kogi.
Remigus, a compliance officer at Zenith Bank Plc, denied knowing if associated bank transfers in the disputed transactions were lawful before Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Remigus had, on April 8, tendered exhibits, including bank statements before Justice Egwuatu.
The EFCC had on Feb. 8, 2023, arraigned Ali Bello, Abba Daudu, Yakubu Siyaka Adabenege, Iyada Sadat, and Rashida Bello (at large) on 18 counts of criminal misappropriation and money laundering, amounting to N3,081,804,654.00.
The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
At the resumed sitting on Monday, counsel for some of the defendants, Nureini Jimoh, SAN, asked the compliance officer if after forwarding certain statements of account to the EFCC , he did anything with the EFCC in respect of this matter.
The witness responded in the affirmative, saying in 2023, the bank gave EFCC the hardcopy of the associated statement of account dated, April 14, 2023.
He admitted that after the matter was filed by the EFCC, he was still filing documents to the commission in respect of this case.
The lawyer asked the witness to confirm that following bank entries of Jan. 24, 2022 and Jan. 25, 2022, that there was no transfer from or to this associated bank accounts by Abba Daudu, Yakubu Siyaka Adabenege, Iyada Sadat, and Rashida.
“As per entries, I did not see their names from 24 January, 2022 to 25 January 2022,” the witness responded.
The witness told the judge that as a compliance officer, he knew his bank is a law abiding financial institution.
After his testimony, the compliance officer was subsequently discharged from witness box.
The judge then adjourned the case to May 19, May 20 and May 21 for continuation of trial
Justice Egwuatu had, on Nov. 6, 2024, ordered the lawyer that appeared for the EFCC, Abbas Mohammed, to confirm and report back to the court if an alleged “misleading” report on the court’s proceedings was from the commission’s website.
The judge gave the order after the defence lawyers accused the EFCC of publishing untrue accounts of what transpired in court on the last adjourned date on its website against their clients.
Abubakar Aliyu, SAN, and Jimoh, SAN, who appeared for the defendants had informed Justice Egwuatu about the development shortly after the matter was called.
They complained that a report on the proceedings of Tuesday posted on the website of the anti-graft agency and on social media contradicted what transpired in court, and that this was not the first time such would happen.
