By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
An Ex-Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Engineer Tuoyo Omatsuli, was on Monday re-arraigned before Justice Saliu Saidu of a Federal High Court Lagos Nigeria by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged N3.6 billion fraud.
Omatsuli was re-arraigned alongside Don Parker Properties Ltd, Francis Momoh and Building Associates Ltd Saidu on a 52-count amended charge bordering on the alleged offence. They however maintained their stance and pleaded not guilty to by all the counts.
The defendants’ re-arraignment is coming barely 16 months after they were first docked by the anti-graft agency on a 45-count charge bordering on similar offence following which trial commenced in the matter.
The EFCC continued with the trial of the defendants immediately after their re-arraignment on Monday by calling its 13th witness, Adamu Usman Yusuf.
In his evidence-in-chief before the court, led by EFCC prosecutor, Yusuf, who serves in EFCC as an investigator, said he was a member of the Special Task Force (STF) commissioned to investigate the matter sequel to an intelligence received by the commission.
While testifying he said, “Sometimes in 2016, the commission received an intelligence alleging that the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) made fraudulent transfers of funds to some companies. One of the companies mentioned is Starline Consultancy Services. “The intelligence was accepted and assigned to my team”, he said.
Yusuf further told the court that about N12 billion was received by Starline Consultancy Services from the NDDC out of which the firm also paid out N3.6 billion in tranches to a company known as Building Associates Ltd. According to the witness, investigations later revealed that Building Associates was owned by Francis Momoh (2nd defendant).
“From the money received by Building Associates, the 2nd defendant (Francis Momoh) made some fund transfers to various beneficiaries. One of them is Princely Estate. Jide Tinubu is also a beneficiary and many others.
“We also sent invitations to these beneficiaries to report to our office. They volunteered statements and also submitted documents to us as evidence of why and how they received the money.
“We later sent letter of investigation to the NDDC requesting for details of payment made to Starline Consultancy Services. NDDC responded to us and from the document submitted by the NDDC, we discovered that the then management of NDDC employed the service of Starline to recover three percent statutory allocation from oil and gas companies operating in the Niger Delta. Starline was paid ten percent of the money recovered as its commission”, the witness said.
The matter continues on Tuesday for cross examination of the witness by defence counsel.
In the charge, Omatsuli was said to have procured the third and fourth accused (Momoh and Building Associates) to utilise a total sum of N3.6 billion paid by Starline Consultancy Services Ltd into an account operated by fourth accused.
According to the prosecution, the defendants ought to have known that the said sums, formed part of the proceeds of their unlawful activities which includes corruption and gratification.
The offences which were allegedly committed between August 2014 and September 2015 were said to have contravened the provisions of Sections 15(1), 15(2), 15(3) and 18 of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011, as amended by Act No 1 of 2012.
