Politics

EFCC witness contradicts self in Suswam’s trial

Published

8 years ago

May 6, 2016

EFCC witness contradicts self in Suswam's trial

The trial of former Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam, witnessed a twist on Thursday, as the fourth prosecution witness called by the Economic and Financial and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, recanted his earlier statement to the anti-graft agency.

The prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, had to cut short the testimony of Abubakar Umar, when it became obvious that he was contradicting his written statement with the EFCC.

Suswam and his former Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Omodachi Okolobia, were charged before the Federal High Court, Abuja for money laundering charges involving the alleged diversion of N3,111,008,018.51 allegedly stolen from the proceeds of the sale of shares owned by Benue State government.

Umar, who runs a bureau de change firm, Fanffash Resources, had in his testimony narrated how Suswam, while serving as Benue State governor, allegedly instructed a cumulative transfer of N3.1bn into his company’s account between August and October 2014, adding that he was instructed to change the money into US dollars.

Read also: Why I leaked Sanusi’s letter on missing $49.8bn oil money –Ameachi

After giving details of how the money was transferred, Umar said he took the dollar equivalent, $15.8m, to the Government House, Makurdi but not hand it over to Suswam.

“I took the money to Government House. I don’t know if they gave the money to the governor,” he said.

Reminded by Jacobs the he was on oath, Umar confirmed that he remembered that he was on oath and that he had stated in his statement to the EFCC that he handed the dollar equivalent of each of the six transfers to Suswam at the former governor’s residence in Maitama Abuja.

He however maintained that he took the money to the Government House in Makurdi and never handed it over to Suswam in person.

This contradiction forced Jacobs to ask for an adjournment, insisting that the EFCC needs to put its house in order.

Jacobs said, “The reason why I asked for an adjournment is for us to put our house in order. And if I am going to treat him as a hostile witness and ask the court to treat him so, I need to gather evidence to do that.”

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