The Managing Director of Paste Poster Company Limited, Mr. Olusegun Idowu, says his company is still being owed N24m for the printing of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign posters for the 2015 presidential election.
The N24m, Idowu said, was part of a total of N54m poster pasting and consultancy jobs that his company did for the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation in the build-up to the last general elections.
Idowu said his company was paid N30m cash in tranches of N6m and N24m for consultancy and printing of the ex-President’s campaign posters, while another N24m remained unpaid till date.
The media consultant stated this on Wednesday when he appeared before the Federal High Court in Lagos, where the then Director of Media and Publicity of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode, is being prosecuted for an alleged fraud of N4.9bn.
Standing trial along with Fani-Kayode for the alleged fraud relating to Jonathan’s campaign, is a former Minister of State for Finance, Nenadi Usman, who was listed as the one of the defendants in the charge.
The third and fourth defendants in the case are one Danjuma Yusuf and a company, Joint Trust Dimensions Limited.
The defendants were arraigned before Justice Rilwan Aikawa on 17 counts bordering on conspiracy, unlawful retention of proceeds of theft and money laundering.
They, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Idowu was the first witness called by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to prove its case against the defendants.
While being cross-examined on Wednesday by Fani-Kayode’s lawyer, Mr. Norrison Quakers (SAN), Idowu told the court that his company got the poster printing job from the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation through referral by a member of the organisation, Aderemi Ajidahun.
Idowu, whose company’s office is on Lagos Island, said one Mr. Oke related with his company on behalf of the campaign organisation.
He said his company received the cash payments of N24m and N6m from Oke.
When asked by Quakers whether he had any direct dealing with Fani-Kayode, Idowu stated that he never had any direct dealing with Fani-Kayode.
The case was adjourned till November 20, 21 and 22 for continuation of trial.
In the charges, Fani-Kayode was accused of conspiring with the other defendants to directly and indirectly retain various sums, which the EFCC claimed they ought to have reasonably known were proceeds of crime.
In one of the counts, the defendants were accused of conspiring among themselves to “indirectly retain the sum of N1,500, 000,000.00 which sum you reasonably ought to have known forms part of the proceeds of an unlawful act to wit: stealing.”
The four were also accused of indirectly retaining N300m, N400m and N800m, all proceeds of corruption, according to EFCC.
EFCC said they allegedly committed the offence between January 8 and March 25, 2015 ahead of the 2015 general election.
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