The trial of ex-governor of Niger
State, Babangida Aliyu, on an eight-count charge of money laundering to the
tune of N2 billion, continued on Tuesday before Justice Yalim Suleiman Bogoro
of the Federal High Court, sitting in Minna.
Babangida and his former Chief of
Staff, Umar Nasko, who are being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC), allegedly laundered ecological funds released by the
Federal Government to Niger State sometime in 2014.
Nmadu Mohammed Ndawuya, the State
Auditor General, while being led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Ben
Ikani, narrated how the sum of N2 billion was received by the Ministry of
Finance and N1.7 billion transferred to the then Ministry of Environment,
Forestry, Parks and Garden.
Ndawuya, who testified as PW7
explained that on that same day, the said N1.7 billion was paid to contractors
who could not be verified, neither were their offices located.
His words: “In 2014, the sum of
N2 billion was received by Ministry of Finance and N1.7 billion was transferred
to Ministry of Environment, Forestry, Parks and Garden.
“The same day, it was paid out to
three contractors. We wanted to know the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU,
between the three contractors and the government.
“We wanted to see the necessary
due process of documentation, such as; advertisement of the contract in the
paper and Certificate of No Objection. We also wanted to verify the work done.
All these were not available. No evidence.
“We also wanted to establish the
contractors based on the available addresses on the available documents.
“I sent someone to Abuja to
locate the offices but he could not locate their offices.”
Asked if he did a report to the
government afterwards, the witness answered: “Yes, we wrote to the Ministry,
seeking clarity on the abnormalities, but we didn’t receive any response.”
Ndawuya also informed the court
that the ecological projects were never executed, neither was the said fund
returned back to the government.
Another witness, PW8, Waniko
Ebenezer, a relationship manager with Ecobank, was also led in evidence by the
prosecution.
Waniko informed the court how
over N400million was paid into the said company’s account within 7months.
“When the account was opened in
May 2014, there was an inflow of N246million. In July, same year, the account
had an inflow of N123million, while in December, it had another inflow of
N123million,” he said.
Asked if he had any evidence
concerning the inflows, the witness said: “there were transfers from the
Ministry of Environment and the Statement of Account will show the inflows.”
The matter was adjourned until
June 27, 2018, for continuation of trial.
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