How Dariye diverted Plateau’s N1.126b, EFCC witness tells court

•Ex-governor ‘gave ex-VP Atiku N100m’
•’Unregistered firm paid N176m’ •Trial resumes today
About nine years after he was charged before the
High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),
Abuja, former Plateau State Governor Joshua
Dariye’s trial for alleged money laundering opened
yesterday.
The prosecution called its first witness, who told the
court how Dariye allegedly diverted the state’s
N1.126billion ecological funds. Dariye is being tried
before Justice Adebukola Banjoko.
The witness, Musa Sunday (a detective with the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission –EFCC),
who was led in evidence by the lead prosecution
lawyer, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), said he was involved in
the investigation into how Dariye as governor
allegedly diverted Plateau State’s funds.
He told the court how Dariye allegedly applied for the
ecological fund in the name of his state in 2001, but
collected the money in person and diverted it.
Sunday said upon receiving the cheque for the
N1.126b ecological fund, Dariye allegedly lodged it
with his private banker, the Abuja branch manager
of All States Trust Bank Plc (now defunct), with
instruction on how it should be disbursed.
The witness said investigation by EFCC operatives
revealed that the bank manager, allegedly acting on
Dariye’s instruction, paid N100m in the name of
“PDP South-west” which fund was later traced to a
company – Marine Float Nigeria Limited – allegedly
owned by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. He
said efforts to make Atiku refund the money failed.
Sunday said Dariye instructed the payment of
N178.8m to an unregistered company – Ebenezer
Retnan Venture Limited, which was later discovered
to belong to the ex-governor.
He said Dariye ordered the payment of N80m from
the ecological fund to Kingsley Nkumeh, a Permanent
Secretary in the Ecological Fund Office.
The witness said although the EFCC later recovered
the N80m from Nkumeh, he ran out of the country
on learning that he was to be prosecuted, and has
since not returned.
Sunday also said Dariye paid N250m to a firm –
Pinacle Communications – owned by a contractor to
the state government.
He told the court that the decision to investigate
Dariye was informed by a request by the London
Metropolitan Police for Nigeria’s assistance in
investigating some parties and companies linked
with the former governor.
Dariye, who is representing Plateau Central was
dressed in a brown kaftan. He looked unruffled as
the witness spoke. When the proceeding was briefly
suspended owing to power outage, Dariye smiled
broadly as he went around shaking hands with some
of his supporters who besieged the court.
When the proceeding resumed, Sunday said: “Based
on the request, we moved to the mentioned banks.
We first went to All States Trust Bank, Abuja, where
we met with the branch manager, who made
available to us information about the account of
Ebenezer Retnan Ventures limited.
“From the mandate form of the account, we found
that the signatory to the account was Haruna
Dariye. The signature to the account was by the
defendant (Dariye). The Account Officer, Awe Obesa,
who marketed the account to the defendant, told us
this.
“He was arrested to confirm to us who Haruna
Dariye was. He could not identify who Haruna Dariye
was and we found that the circumstance
surrounding the opening of the account was
suspicious. We also found that there was no picture
in the mandate card.
“When we went further in our investigation, we
confirmed, through Obesa that a waiver was given to
the defendant not to use photograph. That led us to
recover the mandate card from the bank and other
account opening documents.
“The mandate card and account opening documents
were obtained for further investigation – to
ascertain who the signatory was. We sent the
documents to the forensic unit, which confirmed that
the signature belonged to the defendant.
“After realising that it was the bank that gave waiver
for the defendant not to use photograph in his
mandate card, the banker –Obesa – and his bank –
All States Trust Bank – and one other were charged
before Federal High Court, Kaduna.The bank and
banker were convicted by the court.
“In the course of our investigation in the bank,
through the statements of account given to us on
the Ebenezer Retnan Venture’s account, we saw a lot
of financial in-flows of money from Plateau State
Government account. Such in-flows include an
amount of money coming from the Ecological Fund.
“We approached the All State Trust Bank manager.
She availed us with a handwritten document, where
the defendant split about N1.162billion. We
recovered a photocopy of the document from her.
“On interview about where the money came from,
because the money was not from Platuea State
Government, she (the bank manager) then made
available to us a Central Bank of Nigeria cheque
covering the said amount of about N1.126b.
“The CBN cheque and hand written disbursement
were recovered and additional type-written
disbursement letter by the defendant to the bank’s
branch manager was recovered.
“When we recovered those documents and cheques
from CBN, we traced it to where it came from.
Investigation led us to the Ecological Fund Unit
under the Presidency. At the Ecological Fund Unit,
we interviewed one Mr. Adewusi, who told us that
there was a time the Plateau State Government
applied for Ecological Fund for ecological problem in
the state, and approval was given for N1.126b.
“And that before the cheque was prepared, a
payment voucher covering the said amount, which
has other documents attached to it, were prepared
and audited, at the end of which payment was
made.
“When the cheque was ready for collection, the
defendant and his orderly, one Inspector Victor, went
to the Ecological Fund office and, upon instruction
by the defendant, the aide signed for the cheque and
the defendant took the cheque to All States Trust
Bank, Abuja.
“Investigation revealed that in the office of the bank
manager, the defendant instructed how the money
should be disbursed to some individuals and
companies. The bank’s branch manager complied
with the defendant’s instruction.
“Instead of the money to be paid into any of the
Plateau State Government accounts, the bank used
their own bank accounts to clear the cheque and
disbursed to individuals and companies instructed by
the defendant.
Copies of his instructions, both type written and
hand written, were made available to us during
investigation.
“We invited Pinacle Communications; the
representative of the company. He actually
confirmed collecting the N250m, but told us he is a
contractor of the Plateau State government.
“We found that the N500m actually went to the state
government. The N80 paid to Union Homes turned
out to have been paid to a Perm Secretary,
Ecological Funds Office, Kingsley Nkumeh.
“When interviewed, he said that was his share for
facilitating the payment of the Ecological Fund to
the state. The said amount was recovered by the
EFCC from the Permanent Secretary, Minister of
Ecological Funds.
“Charges were later prepared for him to be charged
to court in Lagos. He was granted administrative
bail. He resigned and left the country. Our
investigation at Union Homes revealed that the
cheque was cleared into an account owned by the
Perm Secretary, Nkumeh.
“The bank gave us the mandate card of the
Permanent Secretary, whose account the N80m was
paid into. The N176 million was traced to Ebenezer
Retnan Venture’s account domiciled at All States
Trust Bank. From investigation at CAC, we found it
was not registered. There was no record of the
company’s existence.
“The N100m paid to PDP Southwest was traced to
Marine Float Limited and, in the course of our
investigation, revealed that Marine Float Nigeria
Limited. The mandate we received from the bank
showed that Marine Float is owned by a former Vice
President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Effort to
recover this money has been going on. We did not
succeed in recovering it,” Sunday said.
He is expected to resume his testimony today at
10am.
The EFCC, in 2007, obtained the leave of an FCT
High Court to prefer charges against Dariye and filed
a 23-count charge against him. He was also accused
of diverting the state’s funds estimated at billions of
naira while in office.
He pleaded not guilty to the charge, following which
the trial judge, Justice Banjoko, fixed November 13,
2007 for the commencement of his trial.
Before that date, however, Dariye filed an
application, challenging the competence of the
charge and the jurisdiction of the court. He argued
that he ought to be tried at a Plateau State High
Court and not the FCT High Court.
On December 13, 2007, the trial judge dismissed
Dariye’s application for lacking in merit, a decision
he appealed to the Court of Appeal, Abuja and
subsequently to the Supreme Court. The apex court,
on February 27, 2015, dismissed Dariye’s appeal and
ordered him to submit himself for trial.