A prosecution witness, Mahmoud Abdulazeez, has said the name of former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello was not linked to the transactions in the fresh documents tendered by the commission in the ongoing money laundering trial of the ex-governor.

Abdulazeez, a staff member of Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company Limited, stated this to Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja when he was being cross-examined by the defence lawyer, Joseph Daudu (SAN).

Abdulazeez, the 10th prosecution witness (PW-10), had identified two documents sought to be tendered as evidence by the EFCC during the evidence-in-chief on the last adjourned date.

The documents are: the Irrevocable Power of Attorney between Dantata and Sawoe and Azar Real Estate Limited, and a Deed of Assignment between Dantata and Azar Real Estate Limited.

Daudu objected to the admissibility of the documents.

This prompted the judge to adjourn for ruling after taking arguments from parties.

In his ruling, Justice Nwite, admitted the documents in evidence and marked them as Exhibits 42 and 43.

While being led in evidence by Chukwudi Enebeli (SAN), who appeared for EFCC following the resumed trial, the PW-10 identified Exhibits 42 and 43.

During his cross-examination by the defendant’s counsel, the witness admitted that the document, marked as Exhibit 43, did not state the value of the property in question.

Abdulazeez, who said he had worked as an accountant for over 25 years, admitted that in his years of experience, he had not received documents which did not contain the value of the property being sold.

“In all your 25 years, have you received documents that did not contain the value of the property that was being sold?” Daudu asked.

“No, my lord,” the witness responded.

He also told the court that during the perfection of the transaction, Yahaya Bello neither participated nor was he found anywhere near their office.

“Dantata and Sawoe gave consent and assigned Azbar to execute the deed and Azbar gave us these two documents. Our directors signed on behalf of Dantata and Ali Bello signed on behalf of Azbar,” he said.

Earlier, Justice Emeka Nwite had ruled that the documents sought to be tendered by the EFCC, which the defendant’s counsel objected to, were admissible.

Daudu had objected to the admissibility of the two documents – the irrevocable power of attorney and deed of assignment.

Justice Nwite said the central question was whether or not the documents sought to be tendered were admissible in accordance with sections 108, 102, and 104 of the Evidence Act.

The judge said he agreed with the defendant’s counsel that the documents sought to be tendered were public documents in line with Section 102, which must satisfy Section 104 of the Evidence Act, 2011.

He averred that the prosecution had argued that the documents sought to be tendered were not for a civil case but a criminal trial.

The court also agreed with the prosecution that the purpose of tendering the documents was to establish the existence of a transaction and not to prove title to the land or property.

The prosecution counsel then called the 11th witness, James Igbakuleh, who gave evidence on a property on Plot 1058, Cadastral Zone A08, Wuse 2 District in Abuja.

The witness, a legal practitioner, told the court that the payment for the said property was made in three tranches.

He said a man, Shehu Bello, contacted him after his client, SFC Foods Limited, had approached him to sell the property.

According to him, after the conclusion of transactions, he was invited by a man, identified simply as Mohammed at the EFCC, saying the agency was investigating a matter and that his name had featured prominently.

During cross-examination, the PW-11 also told the court that he was seeing former Governor Bello for the first time and that he never had any business with him.

The EFCC equally called its PW-12, Jemilu Abdullahi, a Bureau De Change operator, and led in evidence by its lead counsel, Kemi Pinheiro (SAN).

The witness confirmed that he knew some of the companies that had been mentioned in the course of the trial but said his transactions were mainly with Keyless Nature Limited and Ejadams Essence Limited.

He also confirmed transactions, in multiples of N10 million, by Abba Adaudu.

After a brief recess, Daudu informed the court that he had filed an application for the red alert, issued before ex-Governor Bello’s appearance in court, to be removed.

The lawyer argued that granting the relief for his client to travel without taking away the red notice was like “giving something with one hand and taking it from the other hand”.

He said this after Pinheiro had argued that their application to vacate the earlier order granting the defendant permission to travel abroad was for his own good.

“The application was granted for the defendant to travel during the period of Ramadan, for 10 days, beginning from March 13.

“So, if they want the travel on another date after Ramadan, they will have to bring another application,” Pinheiro said.

Justice Nwite said he would need to look at the issues critically before ruling after the parties must have adopted their processes.

The judge adjourned the matter till April 22, 23, and 24, and May 6 and 7 for continuation of trial.

Source: The Nation News