News Investigators/ An EFCC witness, Ismail Lawal, told an Abuja High Court that he collected monies from several Taraba Government officials strictly on the instructions of former governor , Darius Ishaku.
Mr Ishaku is being prosecuted by the EFCC, on behalf of the federal government, alongside Bello Yero, former permanent secretary, Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in the state.
The defendants were charged with a 15-count charge of criminal breach of trust, conspiracy and conversion of public funds to the tune of N27 billion.
They, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Mr Lawal, while being cross-examined by the counsel for Yero, Adeola Adedipe SAN, used a notebook (admitted as an exhibit) to record all the funds he received and disbursed, claiming the record was strictly between him and the former governor, who verified the entries.
Lawal told the court, that other officials included Chindo Audu; Galiya Godiya; Hazel Bala; Joel Gilenya; Taiwo Jones and Emmanuel Efun.
“They were giving me the money on the instructions of the governor to deliver to him.
” I do not know where the money they were giving me was coming from,” he said.
Asked if he knew the purpose of the N40 million he wrote in his notebook, Lawal said he didn’t know the purpose.
”Like I said, I only collected the money based on instructions from the former governor,” he said.
He confirmed that one Jacklyn opened an account for him in Zenith Bank for the purpose of collecting money from Taraba government officials.
Earlier, while answering questions from counsel for Ishaku, Eko Ejembi SAN, Lawal told the court that Taraba is one of the states affected by insurgency and insecurity.
“I don’t know if the annual security vote of the former governor was over one billion Naira,” he told the court.
He denied knowledge of two accounts in Access Bank opened in his name.
“The Access Bank accounts are not known to me. Yes, my name is Ismail Oluwadamilare Lawal but I don’t know about the accounts.”
He further told the court that he was investigated by EFCC sometimes in 2020.
He stated that his accounts with Zenith Bank were used by the commission in the course of its investigations.
The witness told the court that he can’t remember if there was any property at Brains and Hammers involved in the investigation as stated in count 14 of the charge.
Ejembi sought to tender a judgment of a Federal high court, Abuja division on the immunity of the former governor in a property as contained in count 14 of the charge.
The prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN objected to the admissibility of the judgment.
Justice Slyvanius Oriji rejected the admit the judgment on the grounds that it does not have any established nexus or link with the witness.
Oriji adjourned until Dec. 8 for continuation of hearing.
NAN
