The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Wednesday called an employee of Diamond Bank, Eno-Mfon Effiong, as its fourth witness in the ongoing trial of the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olisa Metuh, on charges of money laundering and fraudulent receipt of N400m from the Office of the National Security Adviser in November 2014.
Effiong, the account officer who manages the five accounts owned by Metuh and his firm, Destra Investments Limited, with Diamond Bank testified before Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja, that the balance on the company’s account before its account was credited with N400m by the NSA office on November 24, 2014 was N6,676,576.06.
The company was said to have opened the account in February 2013.
The third prosecution witness, Mr. Bali Ndiam, who is a legal adviser at the ONSA, had testified on Tuesday that Metuh’s firm was among 78 companies and individuals paid over N1bn by the immediate past NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), without any contract awarded to them.
Dasuki is also standing trial in other courts for offences relating to alleged diversion of arms funds.
The fourth prosecution witness, who was led in evidence by the lead prosecution counsel, Mr. Sylvanus Tahir, said the company’s account statement showed that the narration of the N400m transaction showed that the money was paid into the account by the NSA.
Effiong said, “The statement of account has credit and debit transactions and it is on the bank’s letter head.
“On November 24, 2014 there was a credit into the account of Destra Investment Limited. The amount was N400m. The narration was CBN/CIFTS/NAT Security ADVIS. In simple terms, it means a credit from the National Security Adviser.
“Shortly before the inflow, the balance on the account was N6,676,576.06.”
An earlier move by the prosecuting counsel to tender the company’s bank statement and documents relating to EFCC’s investigation as well as others pertaining to the bank account was opposed by the defence lawyer, Mr. Emeka Etiaba (SAN).
Etiaba complained that some of the documents did not fulfill the provisions of the Evidence Act as they were not tendered through the makers, while some others were not certified as specified by the law.
He particularly objected to the admissibility of a letter by Diamond Bank responding to some requests by the EFCC with respect to Destra Investment Limited’s bank account.
The letter was erroneously dated January 5, 2015 instead of January 5, 2016, and the defence on the basis of that contended that the document was not admissible because it was not the same as the witness earlier referred to in Effiong’s evidence-in-chief.
But the judge dismissed the argument while upholding Tahir’s submission to the effect that despite the error in the date of the letter, it was clear that it was written in response to a letter by the EFCC dated December 30, 2015.
The judge also held that contrary to the contention by Etiaba, all the documents met the standard of admissibility set out in the Evidence Act.
The exhibits admitted on Wednesday included a letter by EFCC to Diamond Bank dated December 30, 2015 and another one by the commission to the bank dated January 4, 2016.
The others included Diamond Bank’s response letter dated January 5, 2015, Certificate of Identification dated January 11, 2015 and signed by Matilda Obigho of Compliance Department of the bank.
Effiong said she had been managing Destra’s account since it was opened on February 10, 2013.
Responding to questions under cross-examination by the defence counsel, Effiong confirmed that she was not surprised to see the credit of N400m on Destra’s account because Metuh was a “high networth customer.”
Meanwhile, Metuh’s hope for freedom from prison detention received a boost on Wednesday as the court in a ruling altered the bail terms which it imposed on him on January 19.
Going by the judge’s ruling granting in part Metuh’s application for variation of the bail conditions, the PDP spokesperson would no longer be required to produce two sureties who must have property strictly in the Maitama area of Abuja.
While the bail sum of N400m and other attached conditions remain, Metuh’s proposed sureties, who the court insisted must be resident in Abuja, could now be owners of property with valid title documents “in any district of the Federal Capital Territory.”
The court delivered a bench ruling on the application filed on January 26 shortly after Metuh’s lawyer, Etiaba, moved it on Wednesday.
But the court in its ruling rejected an aspect of Metuh’s application seeking the removal of the bail condition directing the prosecution counsel, Tahir, to within 24 hours of being notified, verify the addresses of the proposed sureties and the certificates of occupancy of the property to be presented by them.
The court rejected the second leg of the application despite disregarding the opposition by prosecution counsel to that aspect of the prayer for failing to file his objection to the application within 24 hours earlier given him to do so.
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