Mshelia Arlye Dada, an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) witness, told the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court on Thursday that Zenith Bank records showed a recurring pattern of cash withdrawal from the Kogi State Government house between 2016 and 2023 through multiple channels.

Mr Dada, a compliance officer at Zenith Bank, Usama Street, Maitama Branch, testified as the fourth prosecution witness (PW-4) in the money laundering trial of former Governor Yahaya Bello, while being led in evidence by the anti-graft agency’s lead counsel, Kemi Pinheiro (SAN).

The witness read out the inflow and outflow between May 2, 2018, and May 19, 2018, after which the EFCC counsel asked the witnesses to confirm a similar pattern of cash withdrawals. The witness confirmed it, saying, “Yes.”

The witness, under subpoena, informed the court of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) cash withdrawal regulations in Nigeria, explaining to the court that, before the implementation of the cashless policy, individuals, corporate organisations, and government can withdraw any amount daily, subject to a maximum of the cheque value of N10 million and after the provision of the cashless policy withdrawal for individuals was limited to N500,000 and N5,000,000 for government and corporate organisations and any excess of the government or corporate was charged five per cent on the excess.

Mr Dada disclosed that within four days, the Kogi State government house had made various transactions to one Abdulsalam Hudu, totalling N1,096,830,000.

Responding to a question by the EFCC counsel, the witness said N350,000,000 was made on January 30, 2018, N347,697,000 on January 31, 2018, N300,000,000 on February 1, 2018 “in ₦10 million tranches through cheques issued in the name of one Abdulsalami Hudu” and N99,573,000 on February 2, 2018, which makes it a total of N1,096,830,000 withdrawn from government’s account to Mr Hudu in four days.

The witness noted that all the transactions were made through cash withdrawals.

The witness also disclosed that in another transaction made from the Kogi government account on September 7 and 11, 2023, a surcharge of approximately N4,750,000 was withdrawn due to the excess transactions made from the account, as per the regulations provided by the cashless policy.

Meanwhile, earlier in the proceeding, Justice Emeka Nwite ruled on an objection raised by the prosecution counsel, who sought to re-examine the third witness in the matter, PW-3, Nicholas Ojehomon, an internal auditor at the American International School, Abuja.

The planned re-examination was of an exhibit that had already been admitted into evidence by the court.

The defence counsel had opposed the application, contending that a prosecution in a criminal trial is only permitted by law to re-examine a witness.

The defence lawyer, Joseph Daudu (SAN), argued that granting the application would amount to allowing the EFCC to amend its errors through the guise of cross-examination.

In his ruling, Justice Nwite agreed with the submission of the defence lawyer and rejected the EFCC’s request.

He held that there is no provision of the law that permits the court to allow the prosecution to re-examine its witness in the manner proposed.

Describing the prosecution’s argument as misconceived, the trial judge ordered the prosecution counsel to restrict his re-examination to questions discussed during cross-examination to clear any ambiguity that had arisen during the process.

“This honourable court is not shutting the prosecution from re-examining the witness, but it must restrict itself to pages 1, 14 and 15 of Exhibit 19,” Mr Nwite added.

Following the ruling, EFCC’s counsel proceeded with the re-examination of PW-3, even as he withdrew an earlier question that seemed like a cross-examination.

Shortly afterwards, the fourth witness, Mr Dada, who had been subpoenaed to appear before the court with documents, took the witness stand.

Mr Dada confirmed to the court that a subpoena was issued to the managing director of Zenith Bank, which Mr Pinheiro tendered to the court with no opposition from the defence counsel.

Mr Pinheiro also sought to tender the statement of account of one Macelina Njoku, who was linked to the case, and a certificate of identification attached to the account.

Although the defence counsel objected to the admissibility of the documents, he informed the court that his reasons would be reserved for either the final written address or a no-case submission. The document was admitted in evidence as Exhibit 21.

Other items the witness tendered in evidence included a separate certificate of identification in six bundles that consisted of the statement of account of Adamu Ishaya Jagaba, the statement of account of Wells Oil and Gas, the statement of account of Aleshua Solutions, with account number 1017361263, the statement of account of Gimeta Properties Nigeria limited, the statement of account of Aleshu Solutions Services domiciliary account-5071352924, and the Kogi State government house admin account-101066710.

Justice Nwite subsequently adjourned the matter to Friday, June 27, to enable the defence counsel to cross-examine the Pw-4.