N3.2b Fraud: Court To Rule On Witness Competence To Testify Against Orji Kalu June 6
Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court in Lagos will on Tuesday decide whether or not a witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Romanus Madu is competent to testify in the ongoing trial of former Abia State Governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu.
The judge fixed the date for ruling after Kalu’s lawyer, Chief Awa Kalu (SAN) objected to the competence of the witness to testify on a document which was alleged by the EFCC to have been forged.
The former governor, his Commissioner for Finance, Udeogu, and his company, Slok Nigeria Limited are being tried before the Court, by anti-graft agency on an amended 34 count charge of N3.2 billion fraud.
They were alleged to have used the following banks to perpetrate the alleged fraud, Manny Bank, Spring Bank Plc,( now Heritage Bank), the defunct Standard Trust Bank, now United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) and Fin Land Bank, now First City Monument Bank (FCMB).
They however all pleaded not guilty to the charge.
At the resumed hearing of the matter on Tuesday, while being led in evidence by the EFCC’s lawyer, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), the witness denied authoring a statement requesting for the sum of N30.8 million bank draft in the course of his duties as a cashier in Abia State Government House in 2005.
Madu told the court, “this is my name on it but I was not the person who wrote it. This is not my handwriting and my is not there too.”
Also when Jacobs (SAN), showed him two other applications for bank drafts written by Obasi John and J Ogbonna, he denied knowing any of the two individuals at Abia State Government House.
“I don’t know anything about the bank drafts. I normally collect cash and hand it over to my boss. I also do not know any person bearing Obasi John or Ogbonna J. at government house”, he said.
Attempts by Jacobs to further extract the witness’ evidence on the three applications was however opposed to by the defence lawyers, Chief Awa Kalu (SAN).
Kalu insisted that Jacobs’ action was against the spirit of the Evidence Act.
The lawyer further argued that the witness cannot be asked to compare signatures of persons he claimed he did not know.
Lawyer to the 3rd defendant (Slok Nigeria Ltd), K. C. Nwofo (SAN), also argued that it is only an expert that can be asked questions on the contentious issue.
However, in his response, Jacobs maintained that the witness is highly qualified to give evidence on the statement he allegedly wrote and signed.
According to him, evidence with regards to handwriting is not an exclusive preserve of an expert.
“The law permits the court to take evidence from the person whose handwriting was said to have been forged or the person who is familiar with the handwriting”, he said.
After listening to the lawyers, Justice Idris adjourned till today for ruling.
In the charge, the accused were alleged to have committed the offence between August 2001 and October 2005.
Kalu was alleged to have utilised his company (Slok) to retain in the account of a First Inland bank, (now FCMB), the sum of N200m.
The sum is alleged to have formed part of funds illegally derived from the coffers of the Abia State Government.
Slok and one Emeka Abone, who is still at large, are also accused of retaining in the company’s account the sum of N200m on behalf of the first accused (Kalu).
The accused, according to the prosecution, also retained about N2.5 billion in different accounts property of Abia.
Cumulatively, in all the counts, the accused were alleged to have diverted about N3.2bn from the Abia State Government’s treasury during Kalu’s tenure as governor.
The offences contravened Sections 15(6), 16, and 21 of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2005 and the Money Laundering Act of 1995 as amended by the amendment Act No.9 of 2002 and Section 477 of the Criminal Code Act, Laws of the Federation, 1990.
