An Abuja Federal High Court presided over by Justice Adeniyi Ademola on Wednesday commenced the trial of former Jigawa state governor, Sule Lamido.
Lamido, his sons, Aminu and Mustapha were arraigned before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a 27-count charge alongside two others.
During the hearing, the anti-graft agency presented four witnesses.
The witnesses who testified as PW1, PW2, PW3 and PW4 respectively were, Longji Tupkop, a relationship manager with United Bank of Africa; Kabir Mashi, regional manager, Unity Bank Plc, Kano North; Mustapha Baba and Onyiche Agbaghara of Unity Bank Plc and Keystone Bank respectively.
One of the witnesses, Tupkop while being led in evidence by prosecuting counsel, Chile Okoroma, said he appeared before the court to present account statements for one of the bank’s customers: Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company.
Tupkop while explaining some of the transactions on the document between April 23 and 26, 2013, said, “the first entry on the 23rd of April 2013 was a clearing cheque of over N7m (seven million) in favour of Bamaina Holdings Limited, another cheque of over N7m (seven million naira) in favour of Speeds International Limited and yet another cheque of over N7m in favour of Gada Construction.”
He further noted that the cheques were returned on the 23rd because they were not confirmed.
“The same sets of cheques were however paid to all the three companies on the 26th of April 2013”, Tupkop stated.
The documents of the account opening package of Dantata and Sawoe were tendered and admitted as exhibits.
Also testifying, Mr. Mashi, identified as PW2, told the court that, his bank was subpoenaed, adding that he was in court to tender the statement of account opening packages of Speeds International Limited, Bamaina Holdings Limited and Alhaji Sule Lamido.
Further testifying before the court, Mr. Baba, PW3, presented the account opening package of Mr. Lamido, while Agbaghara, PW4, presented the statement of account and account opening package of Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company.
A SAN, Joe Agbi however contested the authenticity of the document, arguing that the subpoena was specific about which documents to bring.
Agbi argued that Mr. Mashi only brought the application for the reactivation of the account which presupposes that an account already existed.
“The witness is a ‘special witness’ subpoenaed by the court to bring certain documents and since all court orders must be obeyed, the witness must bring the particular documents he was asked to bring.”
He prayed the court to discountenance the documents.
Responding, Mr. Okoroma said the document is admissible based on its relevance saying, “relevance governs admissibility.”
Okoroma prayed the court to overrule the objection of the defence.
In his ruling, Justice Ademola, admitted the documents in evidence, saying it was relevant and admissible.
Justice Ademola thereafter adjourned the case to November 24 and 25 for further hearing.
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