Ladipo Sanusi/
A prosecution witness, Mr Romanus Madu, told a Federal High Court in Lagos today how his name and other fictitious names were used to syphon millions of naira from the Abia State government’s coffers during Dr Orji Uzor Kalu’s tenure as the governor.
Madu, the fourth prosecution witness, who is currently a Permanent Secretary in the Government House, Umuahia, Abia State, made the disclosure while being led-in-evidence by counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), at the resumed trial of Kalu; his company, Slok Nigeria Limited and the Finance Commissioner during Kalu’s tenure, Mr. Udeh Jones Udeogu.
The accused are being tried by the EFCC for an alleged N3.2billion fraud.
Madu informed the court, presided over by Justice Mohammed Idris, that while he was a cashier and later an Assistant Chief Accountant at the Government House, Umuahia, between 2003 and 2007, he was only in charge of payment of approved bills, cheques and other duties assigned to him by Udeogu (second defendant), who was then the Director of Finance, Government House.
He also told the Court that during the period he was the cashier, the Government House operated three accounts, which were domiciled at Manny Bank, Citizens Bank and Standard Trust Bank. He added that the signatories to the accounts were the Chief of Staff to Governor Kalu and the Director of Finance.
Madu said as a cashier in the Government House, the only money in his custody was the imprest, which was used for office maintenance, while the bulk of the funds received were kept by the Director of Finance, adding that he had no idea what the bulk money was used for.
He also told the Court that each time he received a cheque for a huge amount, he always handed it over to the Director of Finance and that each time he handed over such cheques, the Director of Finance did not make any acknowledgement.
He informed the Court that he only knew about some applications made to banks for drafts when he was invited by the EFCC for questioning on the financial activities of the Government House.
He said: “There was a time we were invited by the EFCC and we were asked to write a statement. It was then some papers and cheques were shown to me, which showed that some applications were made in my name for the issuance of bank drafts from Fidelity Bank.”
The prosecutor, at that point, tendered a pile of documents from the bank, and it was admitted as marked ‘Exhibit E69’.
Continuing in his evidence, the witness stated that from the Exhibit marked ‘E14’, bank drafts totaling N104.3million were purchased in the tranches of N26million, N21.5million, N21.3million, N21.5million and N15million, while in Exhibit ‘E1’, ‘E18’ and ‘E25’, bank drafts of N70million were purchased in two tranches of N31million and N39million.
He told the Court that when questioned by the EFCC about his role in the transaction, he told his interrogators that he was not one that applied for the bank drafts and that none of the hand-writings and signatures matched his own.
When asked by the prosecutor if he knew the other names used in purchasing the bank drafts, such as Ozor Owugwe, Obasi John, and Ogbonna J., the witness responded that such names did not exist in the Government House.
In the exhibits shown to the witness, Ogbonna J. was said to have applied for a bank draft of N19million, while one R. I. Madu was said to have applied for bank drafts of N31million and another N30.8million.
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