Justice Obiora Egwuatu of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja adjourned further trial in the money laundering charge preferred against Ali Bello and his co-defendants by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) till September 24, 2024.
Justice Egwuatu adjourned the matter after defence counsel Nureini Jimoh (SAN) concluded the cross-examination of the EFCC’s 2nd prosecution witness (PW2), Olomotane Egoro, and was re-examined by the counsel to the anti-graft agency, Abbas Mohammed.
Justice Egwuatu, who discharged Egoro, an Access Bank Complaint Officer, from the witness box, adjourned the matter till September 24 and 26, 2024, for trial.
It would be recalled that the EFCC, in the charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/573/2022, is prosecuting Bello and three others for alleged money laundering to the tune of N3 billion.
While Bello is the first defendant, Abba Adaudu, Yakubu Siyaka Adabenege, and Iyadi Sadat are the second and third defendants, respectively.
Earlier, when the matter was called, Jimoh, who appeared for the 2nd and 3rd defendants, applied for Exhibits E to N.
The witness, Egoro, told the court under cross-examination that, though he was not working at the Access Bank branch in Abuja, he was stationed in Abuja in 2023 because of the proximity to law enforcement agencies and that he was never in the Lagos branch or head office of the bank.
Egoro had, at the previous hearing, said Ali Bello neither lodged nor withdrew money in the bank statements tendered in the proceedings.
Egoro stated this while being cross-examined by Bello’s counsel, Abdullahi Aliyu (SAN), before Justice Egwuatu.
He had admitted that the majority of the transactions he earlier identified from the accounts belonging to the 2nd to 4th defendants, which were suspected to be proceeds of money laundering from the LGAs or Kogi State, were actually proceeds from a loan of N2 billion accessed from the bank by the 4th defendant’s company.
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