Joseph Bakare
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Thursday, May 15, 2025, presented First Prosecution Witness, PW, William Abimbola in the ongoing trial of a former deputy director, Highways, of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Augustine Ojo Olowoniyan, alongside a surveyor, Sulaiman Abdulkadir Muhammed of the Department of Highways and Planning before Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court, Apo, Abuja.
They are being prosecuted 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 ), contrary to Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.
The sum is reportedly earmarked for the acquisition of titles for federal roads nationwide between March 4, 2019, and July 17, 2020, which they allegedly converted to their personal use.
In Thursday proceedings, the witness, a compliance officer with the United Bank of Africa, UBA, while being led in evidence by prosecuting counsel, Abba Mohammed, SAN, stated that the bank received a request letter from EFCC, concerning an investigation on accounts of some of their customers.
According to him, the first defendant, Olowoniyan, has three accounts with the bank, while Mohammed, the second defendant also has an account with the bank. He also disclosed that he received yet another letter from the Commission regarding another customer, Ogueri Paschal, whom he said, had two accounts with the bank.
“The EFCC requested for statements of accounts and account opening packages. The statement was extracted from the system of the bank’s server and compared with what we have on the computer to ensure that it is the same. Our information is stored in the computer. We retrieve soft copies which were then sent to printers to generate hard copies. After generating the hard copies, we printed the documents, that is, the statement of accounts opening packages. I compared the printout with what was on the system to ensure that it was accurate. The details were the same. This was then dispatched to the EFCC with a cover letter and certificate of identification. I signed the certificate on behalf of my supervisor, Edward Balande because he was on leave at that time in Lagos,” he said.
The court admitted the EFCC Letter of Investigation Activities to UBA, dated October 30, 2023 and UBA replied to the EFCC letter, dated October 31, 2023 with certificate of compliance as Exhibit PW1 A. The court also admitted in evidence a reply from UBA to EFCC letter dated October 31, 2023 with certificate of compliance for Paschal Ogueri, marked as Exhibit PW1B.
Justice Onwuegbuzie adjourned the matter till May 26 and 29, 2025 for continuation of hearing.
In another development, Remigus Ugwu, Prosecution Witness, PW1 and a staffer of Zenith Bank, while being led in evidence by prosecuting counsel, Abba Muhammed, SAN, in another matter involving, the same first defendant, Olowoniyan, testified that sometimes in 2021 and 2023, Zenith Bank received letters of investigation activities from EFCC, requesting the account opening documents and statement of account of some customers of which one of them is the first defendant as well as those of Olasehinde Jolami and Mohammed Ahmad.
According to him, Olowoniyan had four accounts with the bank adding that other customers, Olasehinde Jolami and Mohammed Ahmad also had accounts with the bank.
“The EFCC request was assigned to me and my team to respond. I printed the statement of the customers from the computer which we use for our day-to-day activities in the bank. When I printed it, I compared what was printed with the information stored in our computer. I confirmed them to be correct. I raised a certificate of identification which specified the condition of our computer which we used to print. I signed the certificate of identification, my other colleague in the compliance department signed the forwarding letter and the requested documents were handed over to EFCC,” he said.
The EFCC letter of investigation to Zenith Bank, dated October 30, 2023, marked PW1 A was admitted in evidence while the EFCC letter of investigation activities to Zenith Bank dated September 20, 2021, was also admitted in evidence and marked PW1C.
The response of Zenith Bank to EFCC, dated November 8, 2023, with certificate of identification of the statement of Jolami, the reply from Zenith Bank, dated September 24, 2021, and attached with the Certified True Copy, CTC of account opening package were admitted and marked PW1D.
Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie adjourned the matter till June 5 and 11, 2025 for continuation of hearing.