In its bid to further confirm its case against Alhaji Sule Lamido, a former governor of Jigawa state, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has presented four witnesses to testify against him.
Lamido, who is being prosecuted on a 27-count charge alongside his two sons Aminu Sule Lamido and Mustapha Sule Lamido and two others were presented before Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Wednesday, October 21, as their trial formally started.
Longji Tupkop, a relationship manager with United Bank of Africa, UBA; Kabir Mashi, regional manager, Unity Bank Plc, Kano North; Mustapha Baba and Onyiche Agbaghara of Unity Bank Plc and Keystone Bank were the witnesses who testified as PW1, PW2, PW3 and PW4 respectively.
According to PM News, Tupkop while being led in evidence by prosecuting counsel, Chile Okoroma, stated that his presence was to reveal account statements for one of the bank’s customers: Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company.
He said: “The first entry on the 23rd of April 2013 was a clearing cheque of over N7m (seven million) in favour of Bamaina Holdings Limited, another cheque of over N7m (seven million naira) in favour of Speeds International Limited and yet another cheque of over N7m in favour of Gada Construction.
“The same sets of cheques were however paid to all the three companies on the 26th of April 2013.”
In the same, Mashi, whose code name was PW2, testified that his bank was subpoenaed and that, he was in court to tender the statement of account and account opening packages of Speeds International Limited, Bamaina Holdings Limited and Alhaji Sule Lamido.
The admissibility of the document was however contested by Joe Agbi, SAN, who argued that the subpoena was specific about which documents to bring.
He also stated further that Mashi only brought the application for the reactivation of the account which presupposes that an account already existed.
Agbi said: “The witness is a ‘special witness’ subpoenaed by the court to bring certain documents and since all court orders must be obeyed, the witness must bring the particular documents he was asked to bring” as he sought the court’s permission to disregard the documents.
Okoroma responded saying that the document is admissible based on its relevance saying, noting that relevance governs admissibility, and urged the court to overrule the objection of the defence.
The presiding judge admitted the documents in evidence saying it was relevant and admissible and after hearing other witnesses and admitting their documents in evidence, adjourned the case to November 24 and 25 for further hearing.
The case before Lamido and his sons is that of alleged abuse of post as governor between 2007 and 2015, as he awarded contracts to companies where he had interest, as the two sons fronted.
They were initially arraigned in July by the EFCC and granted bail, before their appearance again at the court ahead of the trial.
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