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A Permanent Secretary
in the Taraba state government house, Mr
Denis Orkuma
Nev
who is also a prosecution witness in the
on-going trial of former governor of the
state, Rev Jolly Nyame on Monday
September 27th, 2010 insisted
he gave the ex-governor N101 million
cash after withdrawing the money from
the state accounts on the instructions
of Nyame.
Ex-governor Nyame, is
facing a 41 count charge of money
laundering,
criminal breach of trust
and gratification, totaling one billion,
three hundred and sixty million naira
(N1, 360,000,000)before Justice
Adebukola Banjoko of the FCT high court,
Gudu Abuja.
Nev had at the last
hearing of the case in June while being
led in evidence by the prosecution
counsel, Rotimi Jacobs told Justice
Banjoko
how the former governor
unilaterally raised and approved the sum
of One Hundred and One million naira
(N101,000,000), for the visit of
former President Olusegun
Obasanjo to the state,
without following normal processes of
disbursing funds.
He had also said that memos for the
amount were raised on a single day, 11th
April, 2007, and payment vouchers
approved at the government house rather
than
the
ministry of finance.
Besides, Nev also disclosed how over Two
hundred Million Naira (N200, 000, 000)
was withdrawn by some officials of both
the Taraba state government house,
specifically, the cashier, Joel
Andrew and the then Taraba State liaison
officer, in Abuja for the governor’s
private use.
When the matter
resumed today for the cross examination
of the prosecution witness 4, Mr Nev by
the defence counsel,
O. Makanjoula, he insisted that the
former governor directed
him to raise the N101 million which he
did and broght to him cash on April 11th
2007, a day before the visit of former
President Obasanjo.
The defense Counsel also tried
establishing the number of offices that
PW4 will have to pass through before
getting to the governor’s office and the
likely number of
people he must see before getting, the
witness told the court that he didn’t
need any clearance to see the Governor
being
the Permanent Secretary Administration
in the govt house, and that through the
various offices leading to the
Governor’s Office, only the last which
is the 4th has a constant
presence of the Governor’s Orderly.
Justice Banjoko has however adjourned
the matter to Tuesday 28th
September 2010 for further cross
examination.
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