The second prosecution witness of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission-EFCC, Mustapha Sani Gadanya, in the
on-going trial of Nigeria’s former Head of Service, Mr. Stephen Oronsaye,
Tuesday, followed the tread of the first witness, Ibrahim Rouqayya (Mrs), by
contradicting himself while giving evidence before a Federal High Court sitting
in Abuja, presided over by Justice Gabriel Kolawole.
Gadanya is a former ‘second in command’ of EFCC’s Pension
Fraud Team and present Manager, Compliance Investigations in Standard Chartered
Bank, Lagos. He was brought by the Commission as witness in the
trial-within-trial, as ordered by the Court.
Led in evidence by prosecution Counsel, Mr. Afolabi, Gadanya
explained his involvement in the investigation of the second defendant in the
matter, arguing that he voluntarily gave his statement to the Commission.
However, during cross examination by the counsel to the
second defendant, Mr. Oluwole Aladoyele, Gadanya contradicted himself, having
earlier denied taking the statement of one Mrs. Phyna in 2011, only to admit
when the defence Counsel provided documents to the contrary.
Defence counsel had asked the PW2: “do you recall obtaining
the statement of one Mrs. Phina Chidi in this case?”
In his response, he quickly denied. “I never obtained any
such statement.”
Insisting, defence Counsel stressed: “on the 11th of
February, 2011, you personally took Mrs. Phina Chidi to your superior officer
to endorse her statement as having made same voluntarily. My lord, the
statement on page 118 of the proof of evidence before this Court, could be used
in testing the credibility of this witness. It has his endorsement as
investigating officer. The same also is on page 176 of the proof of evidence.”
Upon seeing the evidence of his involvement, the EFCC
witness recanted and acknowledged that he signed the statement as investigating
officer.
ITRealms recalled that Mrs. Phina Chidi was alleged to
have been involved in moving huge sums of money from pension accounts using her
under-aged children, but later turned to EFCC’s star witness during the Pension
fraud trial.
Gadanya also denied seizing the international passport,
mobile telephone and other gadgets of the 2nd defendant, Osarenkhoe Afe, a
claim that was contradicted by the third prosecution witness.
Also testifying in Court Tuesday, third prosecution witness,
Nurudeen Sulaiman, an EFCC detective acknowledged that he was part of the team
that executed a search warrant on the residence of the second accused person.
“I knew the second accused, Osarenkhoe
Afe, during the investigation of the pension fraud. We executed a search
warrant in his house and we saw a Laptop, a brown envelope with documents of
the office of the Head of Service, an I-Pad, a Zenith Bank Cheque book, letter
head papers belonging to his company, Fredrick Hamilton Global Services Limited
(3rd accused) and some other items.”
The matter was tentatively adjourned to the 7th of July,
2016, with six more dates taken for continuation of hearing in the new legal
year, before the Christmas break.
It would be recalled that the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission dragged Nigeria’s former head of Service, Mr. Stephen Oronsaye and
four others before Justice Gabriel Kolawole of a Federal High Court, Abuja over
an amended 35-count charge bordering on alleged corruption.
Others charged by the Commission are: Cluster Logistics
Limited, Kangolo Dynamic Cleaning Limited, and Drew Investment &
Construction Company Limited.
Recall that many Nigerians have accused the EFCC of
witch-hunting the former head of Service, Stephen Oronsaye over his Committee’s
recommendation for the merger of the EFCC with the Independent Corrupt
practices Commission, ICPC, as well as his strong support for autonomy for the
Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit-NFIU.
Reports say the highest foreign donor support to the EFCC
comes because of the NFIU.
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