By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
The ongoing trial of the former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, and his aide, Oyebode Atoyebi, has been adjourned to December 9 for continuation of trial.
The two defendants are standing trial before Justice Mohammed Liman of a Federal High Court, Lagos, over N338. 8 million money laundering charge.
During last proceedings, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) witness Adebayo Adeniyi, while testifying before the court, said the first defendant, Ikuforiji authorised all the cash collected by his aide, Oyebode Atoyebi, when he held sway as the Speaker.
The witness further stated that some cash account books of some banks recovered from the Lagos State House of Assembly, showed that the second defendant, Atoyebi collected money several times above the financial threshold without going through any financial institution.
Under cross-examination, the witness admitted that Adeyemi Ikuforiji did not collect cash directly from the treasury department of the State Assembly. At this juncture, the judge adjourned the matter for continuation of trial.
Recall that the EFCC had at the last hearing on the case, reopened the trial of Adeyemi Ikuforiji alongside his aide by calling its first witness.
The EFCC had charged Adeyemi Ikuforiji alongside his aide Oyebode Atoyebi on 54 counts bordering on alleged N338.8 million money laundering.
They had pleaded not guilty before Justice Liman and were allowed to continue on an earlier bail granted to them in 2012 when they were first arraigned.
At the resumed hearing of the case, Ekene Ihenacho had appeared for the prosecution while Dele Adesina (SAN) appeared for the defendants.
The prosecutor called his first witness, Adebayo Adeniyi, an investigator with the EFCC. While introducing himself to the court, Adebayo Adeniyi told the court that he had worked with the Commission for 15 years, adding that his schedule of duty includes investigation, search, as well as any other duty relating to investigation.
He explained that he had worked in the Intelligence and Special Operations Unit of the EFCC between 2009 and 2012 and also in the Economic Government Department, EG, between 2012 and 2016.
While being led in evidence by Mr Iheanacho said that in June 2011, a petition was written against the first defendant for allegedly siphoning N500 million monthly from the Lagos State House of Assembly. During his investigation, he visited the House of Assembly in Lagos.
He said that from the office of the Clerk, they recovered some documents which were instrumental to their investigation, while the clerk was invited to the Commission.
“We recovered some payment register and when we went through them, we discovered that a lot of cash payments were made to the second defendant, and we invited him to explain why the payments were made to him.
“He told us that the payments were meant for the first defendant, and when we interrogated the first defendant, he actually confirmed that the second defendant was collecting the monies for him,” he said.
The prosecutor then showed the witness a bulk of documents and asked him to identify what the documents were. In response, the witness identified pages 1 to 12 of the document as being the statement of the first defendant, pages 13 to 24 as the statement of the second defendant, while pages 25 to 237 as other documents recovered from the clerk’s office.
The prosecutor then sought to tender the bulky document numbered 1 to 237 before the court. The defence did not oppose the move. The court admitted the statements of the first and second defendants as exhibits A, B and B1.
The court also admitted a search bundle as exhibit C, a cash release register ETD as exhibits D, a document tagged Chili Bulk 2010 as exhibit E, and another bulk document as exhibit E1.
Meanwhile, the court had said time will be taken to sort the other document.
The prosecutor then asked the witness to narrate to the court his findings from the investigation conducted.
According to the witness, the EFCC discovered that a series of cash payments were made to the second defendant, which were above the threshold allowed by the Money Laundering Act.
When prompted to demonstrate portions of such payments, the witness said that in exhbit E, from the transaction of April 30, 2010, the sum of N3 million was collected by the second defendant on behalf of the first defendant.
“On April 27, 2010, N10 million was collected in cash by the second defendant, while on May 6, 2010, the cash sum of N1.7 million was also collected by the second defendant on behalf of the first,” he said
Meanwhile, Justice Liman, queried this pattern of examination by the prosecution, on the grounds that it was not the duty of the witness to “speak” to the document in the manner done.
The court noted that such manner of examination was only wasting the time of the court, since the prosecution would also speak on the same document during addresses.
He urged parties to make progress in the case, which he also noted had spanned a period of almost 10 years since 2011.
After listening to the court, the prosecutor asked for an adjournment to enable him do some arrangements of the documents to be tendered.
Defence counsel did not oppose this prayer for adjournment.
