EFCC opens case against ex-Gov Obiano, as two prosecution witnesses testify

Two witnesses testified on Tuesday at the Federal High Court, Abuja, as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) opened its money laundering case against former Governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano, on Tuesday.

A branch manager of Fidelity Bank, Tochukwu Nnadi, and an Onitsha-based businesswoman, Chinwe Patricia Egbunam, were led in evidence as first and second prosecution witnesses by EFCC’s lawyer, Sylvanus Tahir, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

The case came up before the trial judge, Inyang Ekwo.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Obiano was Anambra State governor between March 2014 and March 2022.

EFCC charged the former governor with nine counts of misappropriating over N4 billion from the state’s security vote accounts.

At Tuesday’s proceedings, Mr Nnadi, the first prosecution witness (PW1) told the court that he was the manager of a branch of Fidelity Bank in Awka, the capital of Anambra State.

The witness said: “My lord, as part of our responsibilities, we manage customers’ accounts and interface with various security and anti-graft agencies in terms of enquiry on a customer’s account.

“We usually comply by providing the requested information.

“I know the defendant in this matter. He is the immediate past governor of Anambra State.

“In April 2022, I was informed by our compliance unit that I was needed at EFCC in respect of activities of the past administration of Anambra State.

“I went there with two of my colleagues. The EFCC told me that my invitation was in respect of an ongoing investigation.

“I was told that it was because I was the manager of the branch that handled most of the financial activities of the then-state government.

“The state government maintains various accounts with our bank, and one of such accounts was for security votes.”

He said there was nothing special about the security votes account.

“It was like every other account we managed for the state government.

“The account was mostly funded by the office of the Accountant General of the state and bulk of the funds came from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state.

“Payments into the account were made on a weekly basis and all transactions out of the account were always based on the advice of the account operators.

“The payments we made out of the account were to various entities and corporate organisations.

“We supplied documents containing names of all the beneficiaries to the EFCC,” the witness added.

However, he declined request by the prosecuting counsel, Mr Tahir, to mention names of some of the beneficiaries in open court.

Nnadi said doing so would amount to a breach of his “oath of secrecy.”

He said the accounts were mostly funded every week.

“Cash withdrawals, manager’s cheques, transfers and drafts were instruments that were used to remove the funds, based on instructions from the operators of the accounts.

“Some of the documents I submitted to the EFCC, included the certified true copies (CTCs) of the statements of account, cover letter for the statements of account, packages used to open the account, as well as certificates of identification for each of the accounts,” he said.

Meanwhile, the bundle of documents from the bank, totaling 794 pages were tendered and admitted in evidence by the court as Exhibit PW1 (A1-A 794).

Another bundle of documents dated 1 June 2023, showing the debits that were made from the accounts, were also admitted in evidence. Mr Obiano’s lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, said his client would reserve his objections to the exhibit in his final address.

Asked by the prosecution lawyer to read to the court from the exhibit, the witness named three companies – Moment of Peace Ventures, Easy Diamond Integrated Links and Nasda Ventures – as the beneficiaries of the funds transfer from the account.

Cross-examination

Under cross-examination by the defence lawyer, Mr Nnadi told the court that all the transactions that involved his bank were done in compliance with the mandate on each account.

He said the mandates were also in accordance with banking practice.

Second witness

Shortly after Mr Nnadi concluded his evidence-in-chief and was discharged from the box, Mrs Egbunam mounted the box and testified in the matter.

She told the court that she is a trader specialised in “Turkey wear.”

She told the court that, on 20 May, she received a call that she was needed at the EFCC office over some funds that passed through the account of her company, C.I. Party Ventures Nigeria Limited.

“When I got to the EFCC, I told them that I did not know anything about the money but that I knew that I told my account officer, Mr Ugochukwu Otibelu, to help me to upgrade my account to enable me to meet the requirement of the Embassy of Turkey.

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“It was to upgrade the account to enable me to be able to travel and the upgrade was for him to help me and post money into my account.

“My account officer accepted my request and collected my company account and cheque.

“However, at the EFCC (office), I was told that about N156. 8 million passed through my account from the Anambra State Government,” she said.

Second witness cross-examination

Under cross-examination, the witness told the court that the arrangement was for her account officer to facilitate the inflow of funds into her company’s account.

She told the court that she did not touch the money transferred into the account as it did not belong to her.

More so, the witness told the court that the company’s directors were her family members.

“Outside the fact that the defendant was the governor of Anambra State, I never had any dealings with him,” she added.

Asked to tell the court about the security situation in the state while Mr Obiano held sway as governor, the witness said: “I currently stay in Anambra State. There is usually no movement in the state every Monday because of a sit-at-home order.

“I know ESN and IPOB, and they operate fully in Anambra State.”

She said during Mr Obiano’s tenure, the former governor worked with organisations and churches to maintain peace in the state.

“This was because churches, organisations and even mosques were under threat during that period,” the witness added.

Mr Ekwo adjourned the matter until Wednesday to continue the trial.

(NAN)