A Federal High Court in Abuja has postponed hearing in the ongoing alleged money laundering trial of former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello to May 6 for further cross-examination of the prosecution’s 12th witness, Abdullahi Jamilu.
Justice Emeka Nwite chose the date after Bello’s lawyer was unable to conclude the cross-examination on Friday after questioning the witness for some hours.
At Friday’s hearing, Jamilu was handed a copy of the statement he made to the prosecuting agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which he confirmed to have written on May 10, 2022.
Jamilu, who was being cross-examined by defence lawyer, Joseph Daudu (SAN), said he made only one statement to the EFCC.
He confirmed that issues relating to Wales Oil and Gas, Forza and Aleshua were not in the statement.
Jamilu recalled giving similar evidence before another judge of the same Federal High Court in Abuja.
Looking through a document handed to him by the defence lawyer, the witness confirmed that the transactions he spoke about while testifying in a related case before Justice Obiora Egwuatu (of the same Federal High Court) were the same as those in the Bello case.
The witness said he approached his colleagues to help him effect the dollar transfer payments because his own accounts could not directly handle such transactions.
The witness also said the names of the companies – Wales Oil and Gas, Forza Oil and Gas and Aleshua Services – were not in Exhibit 46 (his statement) because he was not asked and did not remember them.
He said the companies mentioned earlier before the court – Aleshua Services, Wales Oil and Gas and Forza Oil and Gas – were owned by his colleagues at the market.
The witness added that whenever he did not have enough inflow of dollars to effect transfers, he usually contacted his colleagues and agreed on a rate.
He said the instruction to pay money to American International School in Abuja was given by Abba Adaudu, who he said, came to him with one of his friends for the transaction.
The witness told the court he could not remember the name of the friend who accompanied Adaudu.
He told the court that all the transfers were successfully effected to AISA, after which he forwarded the telex advice (transfer receipts) to Adaudu.
Daudu again asked the witness to confirm that the documents in Exhibit 13 (P1-P14) were the telex advice and receipt for the school payment.
In response, Jamilu said, “Yes, but I just noticed that P13 and P14 are not part of the documents I tendered as part of the payment I made for the school fees.”
Earlier in a ruling, Justice Nwite dismissed the objection Daudu raised on Thursday against the prosecution’s request to be allowed to re-present Jamilu’s statement to him.
Justice Nwite held that the objection was speculative and misconstrued.
