By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) witness in the suit filed by the Commission before Justice Mohammed Liman of a Federal High Court Lagos, seeking the forfeiture of two properties in Lagos traced to former Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki to the Federal Government on Wednesday said that monthly payments to Saraki’s side was provided for in the Kwara state budget when Saraki was governor.
In his testimony, the witness Isiaka Kareem, a former controller Finance and Account at the Kwara State Government House told the court that monthly payments to one, Abdul Adama, an aide to Saraki, was provided for in the budget of Kwara State while the former governor was at the helm of affairs.
While being cross-examined by Saraki’s counsel, Kehinde Ogunwumiju (SAN), the witness said as an accountant, he was familiar with the state budget, adding that he knew there were provisions for ‘security and contingency’, the headings under which the monthly payments were made to Adama.
According to Isiaka Kareem, there was no time he made any complaint to anyone about the monthly payments he made to Adama.
The witness who told the court that he was in the civil service for more than 30 years said while working in Government House, he neither had any personal relationship with Saraki nor knew anything about his property and the source of funding them.
Answering Ogunwumiju on the statement he (witness) made to the EFCC, Kareem clarified that it was not every month that he paid N100 million to Adama.
“The allocation to Government House was not static. It was less than N100 million when we started and it kept increasing overtime. That was why I said it was not N100 million every month”.
Isiaka Kareem had earlier in his examination-in-chief by the EFCC’s counsel, Emeka Omewa, told the court that Abdul Adama was introduced to him by Saraki as his personal assistant, adding that the former governor also instructed him to pay funds captured under :security and contingency’ to Adama.
“Every month, when monthly allocations are disbursed, Adama will come to collect funds designated as ‘security and contingency’.
In my office, we designated a form for everyone that came to collect fund and Adama signed the form every month for the funds he collected from my office. The funds were collected between 2003 when I resumed until the governor left in 2011″.
Further hearing in the matter has been adjourned to November 25, 2020 as EFCC counsel said they have three more witnesses and will ensure that all the three attend the court next adjourned date/
Recall that Justice Liman had on June 8, 2020, ordered the EFCC to bring more evidence in support of its suit against Saraki.
In a ruling on EFCC’s motion for final forfeiture of the property, the judge noted that while the anti-graft agency had made “a strong showing of strange transactions” through Saraki’s statement of bank account exhibited in court, it needed to call witnesses to prove that the funds deployed to building the houses were proceeds of fraud.
