Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court,
Abuja on Wednesday, March 19, 2025 adjourned the trial of
former Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman to April 7,10, 14 and
May 2, 2025 for trial within trial.
The court while delivering ruling on the objection by
defence counsel, Femi Atte, SAN alleging that the confessional statement
made by Mamman at the office of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC on February 20, 2024 was not voluntarily made, held
that the issue of involuntary statement and other grounds of objections
raised by the defence counsel can only be
resolved by conducting a trial within trial to ascertain
their veracity.
“Consequently I thereby order for trial within trial
to determine the voluntariness or otherwise of this case,” he said
Mamman is being prosecuted by the EFCC in
relation to the Mambilla Power Project on a 12-count
charge, bordering on conspiracy to commit money laundering to the tune of
N33,804,830,503.73 (Thirty-Three Billion, Eight Hundred and Four Million, Eight
Hundred and Thirty Thousand, Five Hundred and Three Naira, Seventy-three Kobo).
Abubakar, an investigator with the EFCC and the
Seventeenth Prosecution Witness, PW17, while being led in evidence by
prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, disclosed that sometime in
2023, his team received intelligence that money meant for
Mambilla Power Project was being diverted to private use for which they
swung into action.
“A lot of investigation activities were carried out
with commercial banks, Central Bank of Nigeria and Corporate Affairs
Commission, which revealed that there were more than 10
companies’ accounts used that were linked with bureau de change
operators like Breathable Investment, Fullest Utility Concepts, Golden Bond
Nigeria Ltd, among others”
“While analyzing the account statements, it was
revealed that over N26 billion had left the Ministry of Power
through bureau de change operators’ accounts on the
instructions of the defendant and his cohorts. Upon the findings, we
proceeded to invite the defendant. He reported and volunteered his
statements in the presence of his lawyer of choice before me, alongside my
team members who took his statements,” he said.
He confirmed that all the statements of the
defendant were taken voluntarily in the presence of his
counsel on February 20, May 10, 11, 12, 15, 17 and August 3
and 9, 2024.
The prosecution counsel tendered the
statement of the defendant in evidence but was opposed by the
defence counsel, alleging that the statement of the defendant on February
20, 2024 was not voluntarily made as the defendant, he said,
was threatened and forced to write his statement against his will.
Earlier in the proceedings, the 15th Prosecution
Witness, PW15, Okoafor Chinyere Nnenna, a
staffer of the Central Bank of Nigeria,
CBN and Deputy Manager, Domestic Payment, in charge
of managing government
accounts, in her
testimony, disclosed that her unit got a letter from EFCC to
furnish it with information on the account of Ministry
of Power and the response, she said,
was submitted to the Commission on
April 3, 2024,duly signed by her director.
“We generated the report from our system with the
cover letter of CBN and attached letter of account
statements which we submitted to them. All payments come with a physical
mandate and follow the same process,” she said.
The16th Prosecution Witness, PW16, Veronica Asmau Sampam,
a First Bank compliance coordinator for the North, also
disclosed that the bank received a letter from the EFCC in October 2024
informing them of investigation activities regarding the account of Idris
Musbahu. She said the bank furnished
the Commission with the statements of account, account opening
information and other information as generated from its data.
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