Yakubu Busari
The Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, Prosecution Counsel, Barr. Wahab Shittu has closed all his witnesses with the PW24 Head of detective Mr Chris Owobo ready for the defendants counsel to open up their defense in suit filed challenging the former Governor Danjuma Goje and 3 orders .
The Prosecutor, Barr Wahab Shittu also presented 1st 21 amended charges against Goje and 3 orders which were read to the four accused persons but they all pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The former Governor ,Senator Danjuma Goje currently serving in the Senate ,Alh Aliyu U.El-Nafaty ,SM Dokoro Gombe and Alh Sabo Mohammed Tumu are all standing trial of money laundering of alleged transfer of N5,000,000,000.00 billion without appropriation .
The Registrar of the Federal High Court ,2 sitting in Jos Division who read the charges to the accused persons with the charge title, Resolution authorizing His Excellency the Executive Governor of Gombe state to acquired loan of N5bn only with Ref No ,GH/HA/RAE/Vol-1/17 purporting same to have been ,”signed by Shehu Mohammed Atiku ,the clerk of the state House of Assembly and his have arisen from proceedings from the Gombe state House of Assembly knowing these information to be allegedly false with intent that the said documents were forged or may be acting upon at genuine by Access Bank “.
The prosecution counsel told the court that the accused persons diverted government money main for infrastructure projects and they committing the offense contrary to section 1,(2)C of the miscellaneous offenses act CAP M17 ,laws of the federation of Nigeria ,2004 and punishable under section 1(2) c of the same act.
The 2nd charge read ,that you Alh Danjuma Goje ,M Former Governor of Gombe state Nigeria ,being a public officer between 2nd November, 2010 and 24th February, 2011 in Gombe state ,within the jurisdiction of the federal High court transferred the sum of N5 billion being facility obtained from Access Bank PLC allocated strictly for infrastructure projects to other purposes unconnected with infrastructure projects including transfer to several individuals and corporate bank account as reflected in Gombe state government account 0003273131,00032731227 respectively.
The Defendants counsel, Paul Erokoro while cross examining the PW24 ,Mr Chris Owobo he told the court as head of investigation ,they wrote letter to the SSG and the clerk of the Gombe state house of Assembly ,Alh Shehu Atiku whose signatures reflected during the process of acquiring the said loan .
According to him ,they failed to invite the former Governor Danjuma Goje who is the first accused because of the letter was attached for the request to make access bank account statement of all account in respect to the facility loan obtain .
The PW 24 told the court that EFCC has not received former complained or petition against Goje and orders but they relying on the purported letter by the clerk and that of the SSG to consider as defaulted by Danjuma Goje which spark off this moved for further investigation .
When asked for clarification on the claims purported letter of resolution ,Owobo says I didn’t see some of the documents during my investigation exhibits ,JJ,MM ,OO,6,7,8,9,11,12 because is wasn’t put as attachment to the documents ,he explained.
He also told the court that the forensic experts admitted that the disputed documents were sent to him as specimens for analysis with over 200 different but the fingers print were not included inside .
Owobo stressed that the budget of Gombe state Nigeria authorized the former Governor Danjuma Goje to obtain a loan or foreign loan above the said N5billion alleged transfer loans to complete all the ongoing projects before his expiration of tenure in office.
