A witness, Adebayo Adeniyi, on Tuesday told a Federal High Court in Lagos that the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, did not sign cheques for the money allegedly withdrawn by his aide.
Ikuforiji is standing trial alongside his aide, Oyebode Atoyebi, on an amended 54-count charge of money laundering preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Led in evidence by the prosecutor, Chief Godwin Obla (SAN), the witness, a principal detective superintendent, told the court that the schedule of his duty was to investigate the threshold of money utilised by the assembly.
Adeniyi said all monies approved by the accused were all above the threshold stipulated under the Money Laundering Act.
Under-cross examination by defence counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), the witness, however, said the accused did not personally sign any of the cheques for the withdrawal of the money.
Adeniyi said: “There are two signatories to the account of the House at Wema Bank and Equitorial Trust Bank – the Permanent Secretary/Clerk of the House and the Commissioner for Finance.
“My Lord, from our investigations, we discovered that the Permanent Secretary normally withdraws the cash from the bank on behalf of the Assembly in his name.
“We were also interested in seeing how our investigation revealed that the funds were paid to honourable members of the House and their officials.
“These cash payments were above the threshold allowed by the Money Laundering Act, and the accused did not personally sign any of the cheques for their withdrawal since he is not a signatory.”
The witness also told the court that Ikuforiji approved the collection of several sums of money on his behalf by his aide (Atoyebi), ranging from N1 million to about N15 million.
According to Adeniyi, investigations revealed that the monies were collected on different dates, but he was unaware of the purpose for which it was meant.
Justice Ibrahim Buba at this point adjourned the case to April 28 for continuation of trial.
The EFCC had on June 24, 2013 re-arraigned the accused on an amended 54-count charge.
The accused had, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge and were granted bail in the sum of N1 billion each with two sureties each in the sum of N500 million.
The prosecutor had alleged that the duo conspired between April 2010 and July 2011 to commit an illegal act of accepting cash payments amounting to N273.3 million from the House without going through a financial institution.
It was also alleged that Ikuforiji used his position to misappropriate about N500 million.
The offences contravened the provisions of Section 18 (a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011, he added.
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