Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday, rejected a request by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to ‘cross-examine’ its third witness in the ongoing trial of an alleged money laundering case against the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello.

While delivering his ruling, Justice Nwite noted that no provision in law permits the court to allow the prosecution to re-examine its witness in the manner proposed by the anti-graft agency.

This was just as the EFCC lawyer, Kemi Pinheiro, described the case instituted against the former governor during the proceedings as a political case.

He emphasised that he was not prosecuting a bank official, but a political figure, “one who had even aspired to contest for the Presidency”.

He said this while arguments were being raised on whether the defence counsel would cross-examine the 4th witness when the prosecution concluded its examination at 2:30 pm or wait until the next day.

Responding, the judge said, “Political? If that is the case, then those handling political cases should prepare to take over the matter.”

On the ruling against the cross-examination of PW3 by the EFCC, the judge said, “I must agree with the learned counsel to the defendant that the EFCC can only cross-examine its own witness after it has declared such witness a hostile witness.

“The argument of the learned counsel to the prosecution is misconceived…This honourable court is not shutting the prosecution from re-examining the witness, but must restrict itself to pages 1, 14 and 15 of Exhibit 19, where issues were addressed by the defence.

“The prosecution is not allowed to re-examine the witness outside the pages prescribed.”

Nicholas Ojehomon, an internal auditor at the American International School, Abuja, had stated at the last hearing that there was no wired transfer of fees from the Kogi State Government or any of the local Governments in the state to the American school’s account.

During cross-examination, he also read out a part of a previous Federal Capital Territory High Court judgment that stated there was no court order for AISA to return fees to the EFCC or any judgment declaring the money as proceeds of money laundering.

After a brief re-examination and the withdrawal of an earlier question posed to the witness, EFCC’s lawyer informed the court that the Commission had three other witnesses scheduled for the day.

During examination, Mshelia Arhyel Bata, a Compliance Officer with Zenith Bank, confirmed that certificates of identification were attached to the statements of accounts provided by the bank in the seven sets of documents presented, as requested in a subpoena.

The court, thereafter, admitted the statements of account of Kogi State Government House Administration and six others as exhibits.

The witness, on subpoena, narrated to the court the withdrawal limits allowed for individuals, corporate organisations and government, saying that before the cashless policy, it was pegged at N10 million for government and N500,000 for individuals.

The prosecution then took the witness to the 23rd of May, 2016, on the printed documents, and pointed at a transaction under the name, Abdulsalami Hudu.

When the witness was asked to explain the transaction, he said, “It is a cash withdrawal of N10 million in accordance with the then maximum threshold allowed for cheque withdrawal per transaction.”
He, however, said he had nine cash transactions on the same date.

The witness was then instructed to review the credit transactions of 30th January, 2018, and he confirmed that there were 10 separate credits of various sums, totalling approximately N1.092 billion.

When asked to mention the total amount of withdrawals, the Defendant’s counsel cut in, saying, “He (Pinheiro, SAN), knows that they are for security votes.”

The witness aggregated the total amount of withdrawals to N1.968 billion, saying they were on different dates.
He also read out the inflow and outflow between the 2nd of May 2018 and the 19th of May 2018.
After the examination by the prosecution, the judge adjourned until tomorrow, June 27, for cross-examination by the Defendant’s Counsel.