EFCC witnesses say money not transferred to Shehu Sani
Two bank officials brought to testify in the ongoing trial of a former senator, Shehu Sani, at the Federal High Court in Abuja, have said they do not have any record that money was paid to Mr Sani.
The witnesses, Beckley Ojo and Elizabeth Nwoka, who are compliance officers with the Guaranty Trust Bank, were presented by the anti-graft agency (EFCC) as prosecution witnesses against Mr Sani, before Justice Inyang Ekwo, the Punch Newspaper reports.
According to the report, the prosecution witnesses presented bank documents of how monies were transferred from ASD motors’ accounts to those of others. They, however, did not mention Mr Sani as one of the recipients.
ASD motors is a company owned by a Kaduna State businessman, Sani Dauda. The EFCC is accusing Mr Sani of collecting $25,000 from Mr Dauda in the name of the EFCC acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu.
The EFCC is charging Mr Sani on two counts – including to have fraudulently received money as a bribe for “the Chief Justice of Nigeria Muhammad Tanko and Mr Magu.”
The commission said his offences are punishable under section 1(1) and (3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, No. 14 of 2006.
He was arrested in December last year by operatives of the EFCC. He has since denied the allegation and described his detention as “unfair, unjust, prearranged and politically motivated.”
The EFCC on January 2 obtained a court order to detain the former senator for 14 days without trial.
Read Also:
He was later granted bail last month by Justice Ekwo after spending several days in detention at the commission’s custody.
The judge asked the former senator to pay a sum of N10 million with one surety in like sum as conditions to his bail.
He has since met the bail conditions and has been released.
Court Session
At the resumed trial, the prosecuting counsel, Abba Mohammed, presented both Ms Ojo and Ms Muka, as the first two prosecution witnesses.
The first witness told the court that N3 million was credited into the account of a businessman Sheriff Shanono’s from the ASD Motors Nigeria Limited’s GTB account on December 2, 2019.
Documents relating to the ASD Motor’s account were tendered by the prosecution and admitted as exhibits.
While Mr Sani’s lawyer, Abdul Ibrahim, during a cross examination section asked the witness if Mr Shanono was Shehu Sani, Ms Ojo said, “I wouldn’t know.”
Testifying as second prosecution, Ms Nwoka informed the court that she had been one of the bank’s compliance officer’s for about eight months.
She, however, explained that there was a debit transaction of N5 million on ASD Motor’s account on November 20, 2019 in favour of the Zenith Bank account of Abubakar Ahmad.
She also acknowledged a debit transaction of N3, 590, 000 on A.S.D. Motors Nigeria Ltd. on December 2, 2019 in favour of the GTB account of Sheriff Shanono.
According to the report, the prosecution witness said, “I don’t know the defendant.”
The two witnesses were discharged and the judge subsequently adjourned the trial till Wednesday.
