Mr. Hayatudeen Ahmed ,the first prosecution witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in the ongoing trial of suspended Accountant-General of the Federation, AGF, Ahmed Idris and three others on Thursday gave graphic account how the defendants diverted state funds.
He told the court that Ahmed Idris, Godfrey Olusegun Akindele, Mohammed Kudu Usman diverted N84.7billion out of $2.2bn that was meant for nine oil producing states using the account of a company, Gezawa Commodity Market & Exchange Limited,who is third defendant
Mr. Hayatudeen Ahmed,an investigative officer and PW-1, told the court that whereas the 2nd defendant, Akindele, was a staff in the office of the AGF, the 3rd defendant, Usman, was the Director of federation account in the office of the AGF.
According to the witness, the ex-AGF was arrested, following the outcome of investigation into a petition that was lodged against him by the Federal Treasury Concerned Staff Association.
He told the court that investigations revealed that the defendants had after the Federal Account Allocation Committee, FAAC, approved $2.2bn for the nine oil producing states, surreptitiously diverted N84.7bn under the guise that it would be used to settle consultants.
The PW-1 said the 2nd defendant, who was a technical assistant to the former AGF, promptly submitted the name of his company, which was approved as the sole consultant.
He told the court that the defendants sequentially withdrew funds from an Escrow account that was operated by FAAC and shared among themselves.
Led in his evidence-in-chief Rotimi Jacobs SAN, , the witness, said: “My lord, the case was assigned to my team via a petition against the 1st defendant, who was then the Accountant General of the Federation.
“The allegation revealed that the 1st defendant, while serving as the AGF, compromised key units under his office, such as the TSA, which led to the diversion of funds and use of same by the defendant to purchase properties like the Gezawa Commodity & Exchange Market Ltd, Gezawa Integrated Farms Ltd and Kano City Mall.
“He bought some of the properties in the name of his family members.
“Upon receipt of the petition and commencement of investigation, my team, wrote letters to different organizations, including banks and also invited some persons for questioning”.
According to the witness, one of the persons interrogated in the course of the investigation, was one Beta. I. Kurah, a Bureau-de-Change operator based in Kano was invited.
The witness told the court that the BDC operator, revealed that he made several payments, including the sum of N208m which he paid into the account of Gezawa Commodity & Exchange Market Ltd, in Jaiz bank.
“He further admitted that he paid the sum of N866m and another amount of N507m to one Architect Mustapha Muktar of Marcs & Construction Ltd, for the construction of Gezawa Commodity & Exchange Market Ltd and Kano City Mall.
“Based on his statement, we invited Arc. Muktar, who stated that all the monies received from Beta, through his account, was on the instruction of the 1st defendant.
“Correspondence received from the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, also revealed that family members of the 1st defendant were the Directors of the three companies”.
The witness, told the court that further investigation revealed that funds the BDC operators received from the former AGF, totalling over N1.3bn, were all in cash and in US dollars.
Continuing, he said: “My lord, we found out that there was an agitation by nine oil producing states on the depletion of the excess crude account without the payment of their 13% derivation fund.
“This agitation was tabled before the post-mortem sub-committee of the Federal Account Allocation Committee, FAAC.
“It was further revealed that the post-mortem sub-committee came up with a figure of about $2.2bn as what was due to these 9 states.
“These amount was to be deducted over a 16 months period, on quarterly basis.
“11.5% of this figure which is equivalent to N84.7bn, was put aside for the payment of some public officials to facilitate this payment.
“Even after the determination of this amount by the post-mortem sub-committee, the service of Olusegun Akindele and Co. Ltd, a company belonging to the 2nd defendant, was procured under the guise of consultancy.
“N84.7bn which is 11.5%, was paid to Akindele Olusegun & Co through Firstbank Plc.
“The sum of N84.39bn equivalent to 9.84% less bank charges, was what was shared among the various parties.
“We wrote a letter to First Bank Plc to get the statement of account of the company.
“From the statement of account, we found out that the first payment was on February 12, 2021. There was an accumulative payment of over N21bn.
“Before the payment was made, the balance on the account was N451, 631 and the source of the payment was from FAAC’s Excrow account.
“Investigation revealed that this account was under the control of the 1st defendant(Idris) and the 3rd defendant (Usman) who was the director of federation account in the office of the AGF.
“Aside from this payment on February 12, 2021, my lord, similar payment of the same amount of over N21bn were made on May 6, July 28 and November 5, 2021, bringing it to a total of about N84.39bn.
“Investigation further revealed that the sum of N18.8bn was paid to a group known as Revenue Mobilization, Allocation & Fiscal Commission.
“This group was represented by one of the Commissioners of the agency, in the person of Chris Akomas, a former deputy governor of Abia state.
“This amount was withdrawn and converted to U.S. dollars by the 2nd defendant and handed over to Chris Akomas.
“The second group is the Accountant-General’s group which got a total of N18.01bn, out of which the 2nd defendant, Mr. Akindele, gave the equivalent of N1.8bn in US dollars to the 3rd defendant
“Also from the money, the sum of N1.07bn was transferred from Olusegun Akindele & Co’s Firstbank account to the Zenith bank account of UYK Nigerian Ltd, on the instruction of the 1st defendant.
“Investigation established that UYK Nigeria Ltd is a company owned by a certain Usman Kansila, a known associate of the 1st defendant.
“The balance of N15.1bn was converted to US dollars and handed over to the 1st defendant by the 2nd defendant.
“Upon investigation into why these payments were made, it was revealed that the funds were used in the construction of Gezawa Commodity Market & Exchange Ltd, located in Gezawa city in Kano state.
“The third group, which was called group of Commissioners of Finance in the nine oil producing states, received 2.5% equivalent of N21.4bn.
“The amount was withdrawn by the 2nd defendant, Akindele, converted to US dollars and handed over to the same Chris Akomas, on behalf of that group.
“The 4th group, called Yari group, received N17.15bn. The entirety of the sum was transferred to the account of Finex Professional Services on the instruction of the representative of this group, Abdulaziz Yari, the former governor of Zamfara State.
“The remaining 1.054% equivalent of N8.9bn was retained by the 2nd defendant, Akindele.
“Furthermore, 0.5% of the 1. 054%, equivalent of N4.29bn was converted to US dollars by the 2nd defendant and handed over to the 1st defendant as appreciation for the consultancy service.
“The balance of N4.6bn, representing 0.54% was what was finally the share of the 2nd defendant, Akindele.
“My lord, we invited all the defendants, they reported and volunteered their statements under word of caution.
“They admitted receiving these monies and investigation is still underway to recover funds paid to Chris Akomas, ex-governor Yari and co.
“While investigation was able to establish that the earlier funds given to Beta Kura and Marcs & Construction, and the additional N1.07bn paid to UYK Nigerian Ltd, were all from the consultancy job paid to the 2nd defendant, Akindele.
“Investigation was also carried out to trace properties that were purchased by the 1st and 3rd defendants in Abuja, Kano and Minna, from these payments”.
Meanwhile, move by the prosecution counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, to tender confessional statements of the defendants in evidence, met stiff opposition by their respective lawyers who begged the court for time to consult their clients.
The defence lawyers decried that they have not been able to get proper briefings from their clients who have been on remand at the Kuje prison.
Consequently, Justice Adeyemi Ajayi, adjourned the matter till August 10, even as she admitted both the petition against the ex-AGF as well as bank statements into evidence and marked them as exhibits.
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