The First Prosecuting Witness, PW1, William Abimbola,
in the matter of former Deputy Director,Highways,
Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Augustine
Ojo Olowoniyan, alongside a surveyor, Sulaiman Abdulkadir Muhammed of the
Department of Highways and Planning on Monday, June 23, 2025
told Justice Jude Onwuegbu zie of the Federal Capital Territory,
FCT, High Court Apo, how funds made for the ministry`s contract was
siphoned.
The defendants were arraigned on a three-count charge
bordering on alleged diversion and misappropriation of public funds amounting
to N1,936,961,649.00 (One Billion, Nine Hundred and Thirty-Six Million,
Nine Hundred and Sixty-One Thousand, Six Hundred and Forty-Nine Naira ).
The alleged offence is contrary to Section 19 of the
Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000. The funds were
reportedly earmarked for the acquisition of titles for federal roads
nationwide between March 4, 2019, and July 17, 2020, but were allegedly
converted to their personal use.
During Monday`s proceedings, prosecuting counsel, Abba
Mohammed, SAN informed the court that he filed additional proofs of evidence on
June 4, 2025 and it has been served on the defendant.
Abimbola, a staff and compliance officer of United
Bank of Africa, UBA, while being led in evidence by prosecuting
counsel, testified on exhibit PW1E which contains the statement
of transactions of the first defendant, where he revealed that on March 21,
2019, there was an inflow of N200,000 with narration from Federal
Government of Nigeria. . Same date there were inflows of N300,000,
N2,220,000, N917,000.00, N109,450,000.00, N3,750,400 and N4,662,000.00.
“In January 2019, there was inflow from the Federal
government of Nigeria which was N2,130,000 and N4,530,000.00 , on January
30, 2019, there were similar transactions of N4,705,000 and N640,000
on March 15,20219. I saw transactions like N180,000.00.
N278,369.00, N282,100.00, N1,809,950.00, N504,7000.00, N525,890,00,
N581,600.00, N371,460.00, N297,000.00, N40,000.00, N249,500.00, N80,000.00 and
N30,000”, he said.
Continuing “On April 4, 2019, there was an inflow of
N20m, on April 16, 2019, there was an inflow of N4.9m and the other two are N4m
each. On April 17, 2019 there were three inflows from the Federal government of
Nigeria N35,108.00, N250,758.00 and N3,920,000.00.
On April 26, 2019, there were two credit inflows for
N2, 208,000.00 and N200, 000. On May 2, 2019, there were inflows of
N2,814,000.00, N1,066,000, N2,400,0000, N278,600.000, N1,140,000 and
N197,200.00”.
She further revealed that on May 9, 2019 there were
inflows of N630,000.00 and N2,890,000, on May 13,2019, there were two inflows
of N504,000,800 and N2,308,000, on June 13, 2019 there were inflows of
N116,841,000, N190,395, N222,400, N286,650, N82,000 and N840,600, among
other transactions.
In another matter involving the first defendant,
Augustine Ojo Olowoniyan, Remigus Ugwu, PW1, a staff with Zenith bank
while being led
in evidence by prosecuting counsel Abba Muhammed, SAN, and while examining
Exhibit PW1D narrated how funds were transferred from four project managers of
the “Right of Will project” from the Ministry of works into the defendant`s
account.
He stated that on March 29, 2019, there was an inflow
of N4,700,000 from Festus Oluwa Dare Oluwatayo , on June 27, 2019 , there was
an inflow of N10million from Pascal Ugochukwu . On July 2, 2019 there was an
inflow of N10 million from Oluwadare Oluatayo, On July 10, 2019,
N3,978,242.00 by Mohammed Ahmed. On January 6, 2020 there was an
inflow of N150 million from Olasehinde Micah Jolomi, on that same day there was
an outflow of N9m to Chile Ushahemba Samson. There was another transfer of N9m
to Chile Ushahemba Samson`s Diamond`s account.
The matter was also adjourned to July 16, 17, 2025 for
continuation of trial.
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