The trial of former minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Abdu Bulama, continued today Monday, May 13, 2019 before Justice Hammada Dashen of the Federal High Court, sitting in Damaturu, Yobe State, with the testimony of two prosecution witnesses, who shed light into how money was shared among politicians in Yobe state.
\nBulama is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on a seven-count charge, bordering on criminal conspiracy and money laundering to the tune of N450million.
\nHe is facing trial alongside Mohammed Kadai, a former Yobe State commissioner for Intergraded and Rural Development, Abba Gana Tata; Dr. Muhammad Mamu and Hassan Ibn Jaks.
\nProsecution Witness Four, Dr. Mairo Ahmad Amshi, who is a farmer and a house wife while being led in evidence by prosecution counsel Mukhtar Ali Ahmad, informed the court that on March 27, 2016, they received a list of 2015 Presidential and Senatorial Election Committee members for disbursement of funds for Jakusko Local Government Area, Zone C.
\n\u201cI received a note authorizing the committee to collect cash from First Bank, Gashuwa Branch and a template given by Hassan Ibn Jaks in the presence of Dr. Lawal Yarima\u00a0 Ngama and Alhaji Sani Elkatuso for the disbursement of the fund.\u201d
\nShe further stated that, First Bank, Gashuwa Branch, released to them the cash sum of N32, 440,000 after the authority letter was presented to bank. \u201cThe said fund was taken to Jakusko for disbursement in line with the template given by the Jakusko LGA committee on funds disbursement,\u201d Mairo said.
\nAccording to her, \u201cI presented the template to the operatives of Maiduguri Zonal Office (EFCC) and how the funds were disbursed, duly signed by beneficiaries for the 2015 Presidential and Senatorial elections.\u201d
\nDuring cross-examination, Dr. Mairo answered in the affirmative that, the template was prepared by three people comprising Dr. Yarima Lawal Ngama, Alhaji Sani Elkatuso and the fifth defendant, Alhaji Hassan Ibn Jaks.
\nProsecution Witness Five, Salisu Muhammad Rabiu, an EFCC operative, attached to Advance Fee Fraud and Extractive Industries Fraud Unit, while being led in evidence, narrated how an intelligence report in form of a memo was assigned to his team for discreet investigation.
\nThe intelligence was that, former minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke warehoused the sum of $1150, 010,00.00 (One Hundred and Fifteen Million, Ten Thousand United States Dollars (USD 115, 010,000.00), equivalent of N23,299,705,000.00 (Twenty- three Billion, Two Hundred and Ninety-nine Million, Seven Hundred and Five Thousand Naira (23,299,705,000.00) in Fidelity Bank.
\n\u201cThe sum of N450, 000,000.00 (Four Hundred and Fifty Million) was made available to Bulama and Kadai by Fidelity Bank, Damaturu Branch, and they signed and collected the said sum for disbursement during the 2015 Presidential and Senatorial Election for Yobe State.
\n\u201cSubsequently, the second defendant made cash payment of N85, 100,000 (Eighty-five Million, One Hundred Thousand) to the senatorial candidate, Abba Gana Tata (fourth\u00a0 defendant) for Zone A. Zone B, represented by Dr. Mamu collected N73,540,000.00 (Seventy-three Million, Five Hundred and Forty Thousand) on the instruction of the senatorial candidate of Zone C Dr. Yarima Ngama.
\nHassan Ibn Jaks (fifth defendant) received the cash sum of over N70million ((Seventy Million),” Rabiu said.
\nThe witness further informed the court that all the monies were handed over to the third, fourth and fifth defendants by the second defendant for disbursement with a template.
\nAccording to Rabiu, \u201cbased on the interview conducted by the first and second defendants, the third, fourth and the fifth defendants were invited and their statements were recorded.\u201d
\nCounsels to the first, second, third, fourth and fifth defendants objected to the admissibility of a response of a withdrawal instrument letter from Fidelity Bank to EFCC on the grounds that the documents did not fulfil the requirement of Section 102(1) of the Evidence Act 2011.
\nAfter listening to the reply of the prosecution counsel, Justice Dashen adjourned the matter to June 27, 2019 for ruling and continuation of trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The trial of former minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Abdu Bulama, continued today Monday, May 13, 2019 before Justice Hammada Dashen of the Federal High Court, sitting in Damaturu, Yobe State, with the testimony of two prosecution witnesses, who shed light into how money was shared among politicians in Yobe state. Bulama is being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17855\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}