The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), yesterday,asked the Abuja division of the Federal High Court to order the protection of witnesses testifying in the ongoing trial of Ali Bello, a nephew of the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, who is standing trial on alleged complicity in the diversion of over N10billion from the state’s treasury.
In the 10-count charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/550/2022, Bello is facing trial alongside his alleged accomplice, Dauda Sulaiman, while EFCC told the court that others involved in the fraud and money laundering, including one Abdulsalami Hudu, the Cashier of Kogi State House Administration, are currently at large.
However, the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charge, even as the court admitted them to bail, pending the determination of the case against them.
But when the trial resumed yesterday, the prosecution counsel, Hannatu Kofamaisa, alleged that the lead witness in the matter, Rabiu Tafada, was facing threats.
Continuing, Kofamaisa told the court that the witness, who is an Abuja-based Bureau De Change Operator, BDC, that allegedly helped the defendants to convert the looted funds into foreign currencies, ignored several calls that were placed to his telephone line.
“I called the witness over five times and he did not answer,” the lawyer lamented, adding that he could have been scared away from the case owing to his last evidence in the trial.
She, therefore, begged the court for an order for witness protection.
Reacting to the development, Bello’s counsel, Mr. Abdullahi Aliu, SAN, said he would not counter the EFCC since his client was not fingered as the person behind the alleged threat.
But just when the prosecution was about to pick a new date for the continuation of the case, the witness, Tafada, sauntered into the courtroom.
Testifying in the witness box, the witness told the court that though he only knew the 1st defendant, Bello, by name, he was very familiar with the 2nd defendant, Sulaiman.
There was a time I had a conversation with the 2nd defendant and I asked him what he does for a living and he told me that he is a musician and a contractor,” the witness told the court.
The BDC operator, who spoke through a Hausa interpreter, identified one of his record books of transactions that was seized from his office by the EFCC.
He told the court that whether he was around or not, all transactions were usually recorded by his boys even though he was not educated.
On his record book that was earlier admitted in evidence by the court and marked as Exhibit G, the witness, while being cross-examined by counsel to the 2nd defendant, Nureni Jimoh, SAN, told the court that one of his boys, Mubarak, who is currently in the University, often helped him to write down his transactions.
“I instruct my boys to record the transactions and they usually read what they have written to me,” he added.
The witness told the court that the records were both for money he lent out and for those that came for forex transactions.
He admitted that some of the transactions were recorded in his absence, even though he was always briefed upon his arrival at the office.
Justice James Omotoso adjourned further hearings on the case till February 22 and 23.
EFCC alleged that Bello and Sulaiman fraudulently withdrew a sum of N10, 270,556,800, from the Kogi State treasury, which they delivered to a Bureau de Change operator, Rabiu Tafada in Abuja to keep or change to foreign currencies for personal gains.
Some of the counts in the charge against them read: “That you, Ali Bello, Dauda Suleiman, and AbdulsalALI Hudu (now at large), between January and December 2021, in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court procured Rabiu Usman Tafada to take possession of the total sum of N5,865,756,800 (Five Billion, Eight Hundred and Sixty-Five Million, Seven Hundred and Fifty-Six Thousand, Eight Hundred Naira), which sum you reasonably ought to have known forms part of the proceeds of unlawful activity to wit: criminal misappropriation from the treasury of Kogi State and you thereby committed an offence contrary to sections 18 (c), 15 (2) (d) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011 as amended and punishable under section 15 (3) of the same Act”.
“That you, Ali Bello, Dauda Suleiman and AbdulsalALI Hudu (now at large), between January and December 2021, in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court aided Rabiu Usman Tafada to retain the total sum of N2,509,650,000.00 (Two Billion Five Hundred and Nine Million, Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand), which sum you reasonably ought to have known forms part of the proceeds of an unlawful activity to wit: Criminal Misappropriation from the treasury of Kogi State Government and you thereby committed an offence contrary to sections 18 (a) 15 (2) (d) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011 as amended and punishable under section 15 (3) of the same Act”.
