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Court Admits 52 Exhibits Against Akingbola
As Witness Opens More Revelations
EFCC Press Release Wed Nov 16,2011
Akingbola
The on going trial of the former Chief
Executive Officer of Intercontinental Bank plc,Dr Erastus
Akingbola and his associate, Mr Bayo Dada continued today,
Wednesday November 16,2011 with more revelations by a
prosecution witness of how the first accused moved out billions
of naira from the bank to companies owned by him and his wife,
Antonia.
At the close of the court session today, a
total of 52 documents to substantiate the witness revelations
were admitted as exhibits by the trial judge, Justice Habib
Abiru of the Lagos high court, Ikeja where the duo are facing a
22 count charge of stealing over N42 billion of depositors funds
.
The prosecution witness, Jimoh Abdulraheem,
a former chief inspector with the bank, had in his testimony on
Tuesday, November 15 detailed how funds in excess of N25 billion
were moved to the offshore account
of the 1st accused.
As
the witness mounted the witness box again today, more
revelations continued as to how the accused persons in
connivance with Mrs Antonia Akingbola, wife of Dr Akingbola
raised various written instructions to the bank to manipulate
the general ledger and transfer funds from the time deposit to
the pre payment account before finally issuing cheques in favour
of Tropics Finance limited.
According to the witness, the sum of N3.35
billion was moved in May 2009.Documents effecting the payment
were tendered before the court as exhibit which was accepted by
the Judge after overruling all objections from the defence
counsel, Felix Fagbohungbe.
Also brought before the court were
documents consisting of letters authourising other payments,
input forms used in carrying out the payments and cheques issued
to effect the instructions given by Mrs Akingbola and one Akin
Fabunmi who is a staff of Intercontinental bank plc,via the
letters and memos signed variously by the two parties. The
payments include: N150 million paid on the 2/6/09 to Tropics
Finance Limited,N750 million paid in two tranches of N600
million and N150 million on 4/6/09 and 5/6/09 respectively. Also
on the 8/6/09 a cheque of N75 million was issued in 2 tranches
of N50 million and N25 million.
It was also revealed that N200 million was paid via a
cheque to Tropics
Properties limited on the 11/6/09,N235 million
paid in two tranches of N200 million and N35 million to
Tropics Finance ltd and Tropics Properties ltd on 18/6/09
respectively.
Also stated by the witness was how the sum
of N200 million was moved to the account of Tropics Finance ltd
on the 26/6/09,a transaction carried out via a memo issued by
Akin Fabunmi to process the transaction.
On the 30/6/09, N324.5 million was also
moved with instructions from the same Akin Fabunmi via a memo.
All the memos, letters and instruments used
in carrying out the transactions were tendered before the court
and were admitted despite strong objections from the defence
counsel. It will be recalled that the companies who are the
beneficiaries of these payments and fund transfers have been
linked to the accused persons, who are all Directors of the
listed companies.
The court rose for a 15 minute recess at
12.50pm and resumed by 1.15pm with the prosecution counsel,
Godwin Obla leading the witness to cross examination. He
referred the witness to the witness statement where the
transactions carried out showed that the highest beneficiary was
Tropics Finance ltd. Obla asked the witness to tell the court
how he came about the transaction reports he narrated earlier.
The witness who is currently the Chief
Inspection officer of the Bank said at the time the fraudulent
activities were discovered,
the bank asked him to conduct investigations to know how the
funds were utilized and he wrote letters to First bank pls,
Fidelity bank and Associated Discount House ltd where Tropics
Finance ltd sent all the money totalling 8,684,500.000.
According to him, replies from the
correspondence sent out confirmed that all the funds were
utilized to offset the credit facilities granted to Tropics
Finance ltd. Obla
further asked the witness to tell the court if the funds granted
to Tropics Finance ltd were given as a facility. The witness
answered in the negative.
In all 52 documents were accepted as
exhibits. Counsel to the
EFCC thereafter sought for an adjournment for continuation of
trial, a request the court granted. The case was then adjourned
to the 14th December,2011.
Th
This is the document referred to in the Witness
Statement on Oath of Clifford O. Kokogho as
“Exhibit
COK.2”
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