Fresh facts have emerged on how former suspended Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris compromised the Treasury Single Account , TSA, Government Integrated Financial Management Information System , GIFMIS, Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system , IPPIS, and carted away billions of naira belonging to the government.<\/p>\n
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Idris and his \u00a0co-defendants: Godfrey Olusegun Akindele, Mohammed Kudu Usman are standing trial in a N109 billion fraud before Justice A. O. Adeyemi Ajayi of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, FCT,\u00a0 Maitama, \u00a0Abuja.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0At the resumed trial of the case on Thursday, \u00a0July 28, 2022 , \u00a0Chief Investigative Officer of the case and Prosecution Witness One , PW1,\u00a0 \u00a0Chief Superintendent of the EFCC , CSE Hayatu Sulaiman Ahmed, while being led in \u00a0evidence by the prosecuting counsel, \u00a0Rotimi Jacobs SAN, told the court that the investigations by the EFCC showed that, \u00a0Idris while in office, \u00a0compromised key units under his care like the TSA, \u00a0GIFMIS and IPPIS that led to loss of funds by the government.\u00a0 Idris allegedly \u00a0used the funds in constructing properties like the Gezawa Exchange Limited, Gezawa Integrated Farms, and Kano City Mall.<\/p>\n
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\u201c.. We had cause to invite several individuals who had transactions with the Gezawa Commodity and Exchange Limited and found one Baita Ibrahim Kura of B I Kura Ibrahim, a Bureau de Change, \u00a0BDC, \u00a0operator based in Kano. We invited him and cautioned him and he voluntarily wrote a statement, claiming he made several payments like N208 million \u00a0into Gezawa Commodity Market with Jaiz bank\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
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The witness further told the court that Ibrahim also admitted to have paid the sum of N866 million \u00a0to one Architect Mustapha Mukhtar of Marsc Construction Limited for the construction of Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange limited.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0\u201cMy Lord,\u00a0 \u00a0investigation showed that,\u00a0 Ibrahim \u00a0received\u00a0 United States dollars from the first defendant. \u00a0\u00a0We also found out \u00a0that \u00a0agitation from the nine oil producing states, regarding derivation from the excess crude account,\u00a0 \u00a0was tabled before the Federal \u00a0Account Allocation Committee, FAAC and the committee came up with a figure of about $2.2 billion\u00a0 as what was due to the nine oil producing states, and these amount was to be deducted over a 60 months period on quarterly basis\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
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The witness further told the court that 11.5% of this figure amounting \u00a0to N44.7 billion\u00a0 was put aside as payments to some public officials to facilitate payments to the \u00a0oil producing states.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAfter the determination of this committee, my lord, some companies, Akindele and Co,\u00a0 \u00a0a company owned by the second defendant, Godfrey Olusegun Akindele was presented under the guise of consultancy .<\/p>\n
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\u201cMy Lord, until recently, the second defendant, Akindele was a staff in the office of the AGF, and Technical Assistant to the first defendant. Investigation revealed that N84.39 billion was \u00a0paid into Akindele\u2019s\u00a0 bank accounts.\u00a0 According to the witness, \u00a0another \u00a0transaction occurred \u00a0on February 12, 2021 with N 21billion paid into his account.<\/p>\n
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The witness further revealed that aside\u00a0 the payment of money that was made on February 12, 2021, other payments\u00a0 were \u00a0made on May 6, 2021, and between July 28, 2021\u00a0 and November 5, 2021 amounting to \u00a0N94.39 billion.<\/p>\n
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Ahmed\u00a0 further told the court\u00a0 funds were shared to some groups, including the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC,\u00a0 represented by one of its Commissioners, Peace Akomas, \u00a0former Deputy Governor of Abia State, who \u00a0allegedly \u00a0collected \u00a0N18.8 billion .\u00a0 He said the money was \u00a0withdrawn by Akindele \u00a0and converted to US dollars and handed\u00a0 over to Akomas.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0\u201cThe second group is the AGF group and it got a total sum of \u00a0N18.01 billion.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe third group, the Commissioners of Finance in the nine oil producing states, received \u00a0N21.4 billion.\u00a0 The money was withdrawn by Akindele, converted to US dollars and handed \u00a0over to Akomas on behalf of the group.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe fourth group is called the Yari group. This group received N17.15 billion.\u00a0 \u00a0The entirety of the sum was transferred to the account of Fimex Professional Services on the instruction of the representative of this group: Abdulaziz Yari, former Zamfara state governor.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0The remaining \u00a0N8.9 billion naira was retained by the second defendant. Furthermore, N4.29 billion was converted to US dollars by Akindele \u00a0as appreciation for the consultancy contract, and the balance of N4.6 billion was given to Akindele.<\/p>\n
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Ahmed confirmed to the court that all his disclosures \u00a0were\u00a0 confirmed by the defendants \u00a0\u00a0in writing,\u00a0 \u00a0in their statements \u00a0admitting to have collected all the monies.<\/p>\n
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Also,\u00a0 \u00a0properties purchased with the funds by the first and third defendants were traced to various locations in Abuja, Kano, and Minna, Niger state.<\/p>\n
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Earlier, \u00a0\u00a0Justice\u00a0 Ajayi \u00a0admitted the defendants to bail on the terms earlier granted by the EFCC.\u00a0 One of the bail conditions is that, \u00a0the defendants should not\u00a0 leave the jurisdiction of the court without the court\u2019s permission, and their passports \u00a0\u00a0deposited with the court’s\u00a0 registrar and in no circumstance should any of the defendants \u00a0apply for an alternative passport, as doing so, will revoke the bail terms. They should also depose\u00a0 to \u00a0an affidavit to adhere to the \u00a0bail conditions.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0In the EFCC\u2019s bail \u00a0conditions, \u00a0Idris was granted bail in \u00a0the sum of N18 billion, and two sureties. \u00a0\u00a0One of the sureties should be a\u00a0 Permanent Secretary, and the other a\u00a0 Director in the Federal Civil Service with bond of N100,000,000 ( One Hundred Million Naira) \u00a0each.<\/p>\n
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Akindele was admitted to bail in the sum of N20 billion \u00a0and \u00a0two sureties who must be\u00a0 Directors \u00a0in the Federal Civil Service and \u00a0Usman was granted bail in the sum of \u00a0N200 million and two Directors in like sum.<\/p>\n
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The Judge thereafter adjourned the matter to\u00a0August 10\u00a0and 11, 2022 for continuation of trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fresh facts have emerged on how former suspended Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris compromised the Treasury Single Account , TSA, Government Integrated Financial Management Information System , GIFMIS, Integrated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n