•EFCC insists AGF didn’t authorise Access Bank’s account
THE prosecution in the trial of former Head of Service of the Federation Steve Oronsaye announced the closure of its case yesterday after the defence completed its cross-examination of the sixth prosecution witness, Hammaadama Bello.
Oronsaye, who was also chairman of Presidential Committee on Financial Action Task Force (PCFATF), is facing a seven-count amended charge, in which he is, among others, accused of criminal breach of trust.
He is said to have, between 2013 and 2015, converted about N382.9 million, belonging to the PCFATF , to his personal use.
He is alleged to have sourced the N382.9 million from the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) in the name of the PCFATF and deposited it in a secret account with Access Bank Plc without the knowledge of other members of the committee.
Oronsaye is alleged to have invested the money at nine per cent interest rate in the Access Bank account, to which he was sole signatory and which he allegedly opened and operated exclusively without the knowledge of other committee members.
The alleged offences are said to be contrary to Section 311 and punishable under Section 315 of the Penal Code Act.
Under cross-examination yesterday by defence lawyers, Kanu Agabi (SAN) and Ade Okeaya-Inneh (SAN), Bello stated that he instructed that a “post no debit” (PND) be placed on the PCFATF’s purported account in Access Bank when he realised, upon investigations, that the account was opened without being authorised by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF).
“I discovered that the defendant (Oronsaye) withdrew about N86 million from the committee’s account in Zenith Bank, which was not accounted for. He made promises to bring the documents justifying the withdrawal but he never did.
“We wrote to the office of AGF, asking if it authorised the committee account opened in Access Bank, to which the defendant is a sole signatory. And in their response, they stated that they only authorised the opening of the committee account in Zenith Bank. They also provided details of the account as well as the funds in it,” Bello said.
Bello, an official of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), who testified as the 6th prosecution witness, informed the court that the defendant (Oronsaye) made several withdrawals from the Access Bank account, using one Friday Oge, who takes the cash to him.
“We also observed that the equivalent of the withdrawn sums was paid into his personal account on same date.
“N50 million cash was given to the defendant from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), which he paid in tranches of N9million into the fraudulent committee account in Access Bank,” he said.
The witness said the petitioners were anonymous, but that in spite of that, the petitions were investigated by EFCC operatives and found that two bank accounts – one at Zenith Bank and the other at Access bank – were opened in the name of the committee.
Bello said the committee in whose name the defendant received the N50 million from ONSA never got the money.
He said Oronsaye failed to justify the spending of the money on behalf of the committee when asked to do so.
The witness said: “I remember saying that the N50 million given to the committee came from the arms deal money of the NSA.
“He (Oronsaye) didn’t say in his statement that the money should come from arms funds.
“I have heard from the Special Task Force set up by the Executive Chairman (of EFCC) to investigate the funds that the money came from the former NSA (Dasuki).
“I cross-checked from the defendant’s statement and the statement of Director of Finance of NSA.
“I didn’t come across any evidence suggesting that he (Oronsaye) knew that the money came from arms fund. He told me that the N50 million was given to him in cash.
“He didn’t tell me he gave sum to the secretary of the committee. He told me that he took the money to the Access Bank account and handed it to the account officer, who later structured it into five transactions of N9 million each.
At the end of the day, it was only N45 million that ended up in the account (the Access Bank account). The defendant promised to come up with some documentary evidence of how the money was spent, but he never did.
“The ONSA was wrong to transact with cash. It was far above the threshold. The fund never got to the committee. It went into fraudulent account with Access Bank. Ab initio, they (the committee) don’t even have approval to take money from the NSA,” the witness said.
On whether he expected the defendant to reject the money given to him by the NSA, Bello said, “for him, as an individual, it depended on his motive. But the committee should have rejected it.”
When the defence team ended its cross-examination, prosecution lawyer, Offem Uket, told the court that he would be closing the prosecution’s case.
The defence indicated its intention to make a no-case submission, rather than commencing its defence.
Justice Goodluck subsequently adjourned to December 9.