The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Wednesday October
23, 2019, presented the 14th prosecution witness 14 (PW14), a Union Bank
branch manager, Adesegun Timothy, against the former Head of Service
(HoS), Stephen Oronsanye and three others in the alleged N2billion fraud
levelled against them by the Commission.
The EFCC is prosecuting Oronsanye alongside Osarenkhoe Afe, managing
director, Fredrick Hamilton Global Services Limited, the company and one
other before Justice I E Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja for their
alleged complicity in several contract award scams during Oronsanye’s
tenure as HoS.
Led in evidence at the resumed sitting, by prosecution counsel, O. A.
Atolagbe, Timothy, whose job schedule as the bank manager included
overseeing all banking activities on a day-to-day basis stated that “In
2016, the bank provided statement of accounts, mandates, certificate of
verification to the EFCC and this was duly stamped by the bank in
respect to the pension payment account of the Office of the Head of
Service.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Atolagbe presented the prosecution witness 13
(PW13), Mr. Eric Chukwu Emeka, a retired director in the Audit
Department of the Office of the Head of Service, who narrated how the
then Auditor General of the Federation mandated his department to carry
out an investigative audit report from 2005 to 2010, which unearthed a
can of worms against the Office of the HoS.
The witness told the court that while performing the exercise on the
pension payment accounts, he discovered several irregularities,
including multiple beneficiaries, without cash books, nor payment
narrative on bank transfers disbursed to beneficiaries.
“Our report highlighted this grave error and we brought this to the
attention to the Auditor General. While recommendations were made, we
held that the Office of the Head of Service had a lot of irregularities
on the monthly pension payments and suggested that this should be
addressed,” he said.
“We did not see any payment that reflected the payment for biometric
capture in the 36 states and there were many grey areas on payments made
to the tune of N2billion. We experienced several hiccups while demanding
support documents from the accounts department and realized that several
payment vouchers and files were missing. The files processed ought to be
sequential but sometimes there could only be one or two files for a
certain payment for the entire year.”
Mr. Emeka further stated that there were gaps in the due processes,
which they identified and recommended in their overall report.
He told the court that huge financial misappropriations were observed
and recorded in the detailed report, which was thereafter submitted and
certified by the Auditor General.
Atolagbe, the 14th witness sought to tender the report but Oronsanye’s
counsel, Joe Agi SAN, and Oluwole Aladedoye, counsel for Afe and
Fredrick Hamilton Global Services Limited, objected to the admissibility
of the document, stating that the said documents were rejected by the
former trial judge for lack of credibility.
However, Justice Ekwo admitted the special investigative audit report on
the pension accounts and a letter from the Auditor General, that
authorised the audit exercise.
After the 496 pages document was tendered by the prosecution on
Wednesday, October 23, 2019, the Judge adjourned the matter till
December 2, 3 and 4, 2019, for continuation of trial.