A prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of seven persons accused of
\ncomplicity in the billion naira Police Pension fraud, Mustapha Sani
\nGadanya, told Justice Hussein Baba of the Federal Capital Territory High
\nCourt how 400 cheques were cashed in a day by the accused persons.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver 400 cheques were withdrawn and we got this information from the bank
\nstatement furnished us by First Bank Plc,\u201d Mustapha said.<\/p>\n
Led in evidence by Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, Gadanya told the court that he
\nobtained and analyzed the certified true copy of instruments used in
\nmaking withdrawals in the name of Veronica Onyegbula and the Directors of
\nPolice Pension office – Esai Dangaba, Atiku Kigo Abubakar and Inuwa Wada.
\n\u201cWe discovered that the three directors are all signatories to the
\nfraudulent cheques. We also discovered that Mrs. Uzoma Cyril Attang, John
\nYusuf, Gabriel Ikpe, Mike Okoro and one Mrs. Amu (currently at large), are
\namong those who signed the cheques\u201d, Gadanya said.<\/p>\n
Gadanya further told the court that the directors carried out the cheque
\ntransactions without any letter of exemption from compliance with the
\ne-payment circular from the office of the Accountant General.<\/p>\n
On further analysis of the bank statements, he said, \u201cwe discovered that
\nbetween August 2007 and December 2007, over 4billion was withdrawn;
\nbetween January and December 2008 over 5billion was withdrawn; between
\nJanuary and December 2009 over 8 billion was withdrawn and between January
\nand December 2010 over 3 billion was withdrawn\u201d, Gadanya told the court.<\/p>\n
Perhaps shocked by the staggering amount, Justice Baba sought to know from
\nthe witness what currency was involved to which the witness responded:
\n\u201cNaira my Lord\u201d.<\/p>\n
Gadanya then went on to state that between 31st January, 2011 and 6th May,
\n2011 over N1billion was withdrawn and that the sum of N650 million was
\nwithdrawn on 31st January, 2011.<\/p>\n
Gadanya also told the court that between February and May 2011 when Inuwa
\nWada was the director of the police pension office, he withdrew about
\nN850million, while over N4 billion was withdrawn between December 2009 and
\nJanuary, 2011 when Atiku Kigo Abubakar was the director of the police
\npension office.<\/p>\n
Also over N14 billion was withdrawn during Esai Dangabar\u2019s tenure from
\nJanuary 2008 to November 2009, bringing the total amount siphoned from the
\npolice pension account to N20 billion in flagrant violation of extant
\nfinancial regulations.<\/p>\n
However, attempt by the prosecution to tender two documents \u2013 the analysis
\nof the cheques and the certificate of identification- was opposed by the
\ndefence counsel.<\/p>\n
Justice Baba adjourned proceedings to March 12, for ruling on the
\ndefendants\u2019 objection and continuation of trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of seven persons accused of complicity in the billion naira Police Pension fraud, Mustapha Sani Gadanya, told Justice Hussein Baba of the Federal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n