EFCC closes alleged fraud case against ‘Mama Boko Haram’, others
The anti-graft agency, EFCC, on Monday closed its case of fraud against Aishat Wakil, aka Mama Boko Haram and two others at a Maiduguri High Court after presenting forensic evidence to buttress its allegations.
After presenting the sixth and seventh prosecuting witnesses, the EFCC lead lawyer, Benjamin Manji, told the court that his witnesses have presented enough evidence against the three accused persons.
It could be recalled that the EFCC had in December last year filed criminal charges against Mama Boko Haram and the two others – Saidu Daura and Prince Lawal Shoyade, on N66 million fraud case which they allegedly perpetrated through Mrs Wakil’s NGO, Complete Care, and Aid Foundation.
The EFCC later amended the charges and re-arraigned the three accused persons before Justice Aisha Kumalia of the Borno State High Court, Maiduguri on “a-five count amended charge bordering of conspiracy, obtaining money by false pretence and cheating to the tune of N111.6 million”.
The three accused persons pleaded not guilty.
Mr Manji then asked the court to proceed for trial and also prayed the court to remand the defendants in the EFCC’s custody.
But the defence counsel, S.M Konto, then told the court of a pending bail application and urged the court to hear the said application.
Justice Kumaliya granted them to bail in the sum of N30 million with two sureties in like sum.
But Mrs Wakil, a lawyer and wife to a serving judge in Borno State, and the two others could not fulfil the bail terms and were thus detained in the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCS) in Maiduguri.
The prosecution team of the EFCC had in subsequent sittings of the court presented five witnesses. It ended its case presentation today with the testimonies from the 6th and 7th witnesses.
Forensic Evidence
At Monday’s sitting, presided by Justice Aisha Kumalia, the EFCC brought in two key witnesses who testified to the validity of the forensic reports carried out at the Forensic Science Laboratory Department of the EFCC, Abuja.
The two prosecution witnesses, comprising EFCC’s Detective Superintendent Ismail Olaleye and George Uzuoma of the Forensic Lab, told the court about how they analysed five smartphones belonging to the three accused persons.
They said this proved that they (accused) were aware of the transaction that led to the alleged defrauding of the petitioner.
Mr Uzuoma told the court that he personally examined and analysed the five smartphones, comprising two Samsung
Galaxy tabs, and three Samsung mobile phones.
He said this led to the ”three volumes of forensic reports produced and presented to the court”.
He said the request note that was brought to the EFCC lab from Maiduguri demanded that the Whatsapp messages of the phones be analysed to ascertain if the three were in contact with one another in respect to the alleged fraudulent contract.
It could be recalled the three accused had told the court that they were not aware of such contracts.
Mr Uzuoma said after thorough examination using different devices and applications, he was able to extract the Whatsapp messages including the one that had the three accused ”discussing issues related to the alleged fraudulent contracts”.
Mr Uzuoma confirmed to the court that the Compact Disc (CD) plate marked “DFR/159/ 2019″, marked as an exhibit in court was the product of the forensic examination.
He also said the CD ”was peer-reviewed by another forensic expert before it was sent back to the Maiduguri zonal office of the EFCC”.
Mr Uzuoma said evidence discovered in the phones and tabs, showed Mrs Wakil did have contact with the two accused persons.
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Also, EFCC’s Olaleye Ismail told the court he is usually assigned to investigate petitions, make arrests, aside from other tasks assigned to his department.
He said on March 15, 2019, the Maiduguri zonal office of the EFCC received a petition written and signed by an attorney on behalf of one Ali Tijjani, the CEO/managing director of AMTMAT Global Ventures Complete Care and Aid Foundation.
He said his team comprising nine personnel swung into action and investigated the petition.
He said during the cause of the investigation, the three accused persons were asked to submit their mobile devices for the forensic examination which they voluntarily did and their consent was backed by written statements and filling of ownership attestation forms.
He said a “letter of the request was drafted and addressed to the head of the forensic department of the forensic science lab department of EFCC, Abuja.”
“I personally took them to the digital forensic section of the FSL department of the EFCC in Abuja on 22nd November 2019.
“On 30th January 2020, a response came from the digital section of the FSL department. The following items were contained in the response:
1: Forensic report
2. Compact disk; label DFR/159/ 2019
3 All the 5 mobile phones sent for analysis.
Mr Olaleye told the court that the essence of the forensic examination was to prove a purported contract where the accused asked the complainant to pay N42 million into a third party account of a would-be trusted supplier.
The detective told the court that “investigation, however, revealed the accused person who instructed the complainant to pay the money, did not make the supply.
“Further investigations revealed that there was no contract at all,” Mr Olaleye said. “The accused persons only induced the complainant to part with their money.”
Ponzi scheme?
The witness said Mama Boko Haram and her two partners were into what they call Project Recur lung ”which means they used the money they got from contractors to pay into a third party supplier’s account to pay other contractors which they (the accused persons) were previously indebted to”.
”It was like robbing Peter to pay Paul,” he said. “The second accused person mentioned vividly that such money paid into the third party account is called project recircling.”
He also said in “a voluntary statement of June 26, 2019″ that project recircling involves using one of the trusted company’s accounts to obtain money deposited by others to pay money owed contractors.”
“Records in the compact disk entails record of communication between the accused persons,” Mr Olaleye explained.
“The first and third initially denied knowledge of the contracts. But careful analysis indicated that all the accused persons are aware and agreed on the project recircling.”
Meanwhile, the defence counsel to Mama Boko Haram, A.M Audu, did not undertake any cross-examination.
After the EFCC prosecuting team had closed their cases, the presiding judge asked the defence team of the number of witnesses they had.
The counsel to the first accused person consulted Mama Boko Haram who was, all through the hearing, seated beside the witness dock because she could neither stand nor walk, and later told the court they had three.
The other accused person’s lawyer said they had four and ”many other IDPs” (internally displaced persons).
Mama Boko Haram who was practically lifted into the cot by two officials of the Nigeria Correctional Service was adorned in her usual Islamic face veil that revealed only her bespectacled face.
She was lifted out of the courtroom, in the same manner, she was brought in.
Justice Kumalia later adjourned the case to May 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.
Mama Boko Haram earned fame for her self acclaimed closeness with the Boko Haram insurgents and had on several instances been appointed into government committees to dialogue with the insurgents.
