By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has presented a witness who claims he has a recorded phone conversation between former senator Shehu Sani, and his accuser, Alhaji Sani Dauda.
Sani is facing two count charges of influence peddling and name dropping. He was alleged to have demanded $25,000 on behalf of some judges, an allegation he has denied.
The witness, Mohammed Sani, who is the son of Shehu Sani’s accuser, Alhaji Sani Dauda, also known as ASD, told Justice I. E. Ekwo of the Federal High Court Abuja that he followed the advice of the EFCC and recorded the conversations between his father and Senator Shehu Sani.
Mohammed Sani, who is the seventh prosecution witness, said he installed the phone in his father’s office and also his home in Kaduna which recorded the conversation between his father and Shehu Sani…
“We went to EFCC’s office on Monday after Shehu Sani stopped picking and responding to my dad’s calls and text messages, to write a statement on the issue.
“I needed to be there too to write my own part of the story because I was the one who called Abubakar, a bureau de change operator, telling him that my dad needed United States Dollars equivalent of N5million.
“At the Commission’s office, they told us to record any conversations between my dad and Shehu Sani, and that’s how we started recording him.
“I set the phone for recording in my dad’s office in Abuja and also in Kaduna, where Shehu Sani came with his brother, one Dr. Ibrahim asking my father to change his statement with EFCC,” Mohammed Sani said.
Mohammed Sani added that the EFCC later collected his dad’s two phones and his own phone as exhibits in the case.
Another prosecution witness, Fatima Asabe Umar, an EFCC staff in the Digital Forensic Department, said she conducted forensic examinations on the phones.
“As a digital forensic analyst, I examine, analyze mobile devices, computers, and any digital device that have memory among many others.
“I received a memo from Ibrahim Musa of the AMCON Desk of the Commission, requesting us to extract a record from the two Samsung mobile phones and one iPhone.
“Immediately after receiving the request, I collected the devices, three phones. I examined them. Afterwards I wrote a report to the AMCON Desk, asking Bako Mohammed to come for the devices they brought.
“I gave them the report, and also burnt it into a compact disk and gave it to them,” she said.
The judge adjourned the case till July 9, 2020 for continuation of trial.