Drama as EFCC witness can’t recall dates, amounts in Ishaku’s N27bn trial

The trial of former Taraba State Governor, Architect Darius Ishaku, continued on Tuesday at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), with the first prosecution witness (PW1), Ismail Oluwadamilare Lawal, making a striking admission.

Testifying before Justice Sylvanus Oriji in Maitama, Abuja, Lawal told the court that he could not confirm the total amount of allowances he collected on behalf of Ishaku from the Government House, Jalingo.

The former governor, alongside Bello Yero, a former permanent secretary at the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in Taraba State, is facing prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). They are being tried on a 15-count charge marked FCT/HC/CR/792/2024, which includes allegations of criminal breach of trust, conspiracy, and conversion of public funds estimated at ₦27 billion.

The former governor and his co-defendant, however, pleaded not guilty.
At the resumed hearing in the case today, Lawal, who was a personal assistant to the former governor, told the court under cross-examination by counsel for the former governor, Paul Ogbole SAN, that he collected cash on behalf of the first defendant but did not know the total amount or the dates he collected the money.

“I collected the first defendant’s earned allowances and distributed them based on his instructions. But I don’t know the total amount I received on his behalf. I also don’t know the dates,” the witness told the court.

He told the court that he, too, was paid allowances for working with the former governor, adding that he received a N20,000 daily allowance whenever he traveled with his principal.
Lawal informed that he was paid N130,000 monthly salary and had a poultry farm at Kubwa, Abuja, with 6,000 birds while working with the former governor.

“The birds were 6,000 then, but as of today, they are 2,000. The capacity has diminished. As of then, the poultry’s value was about N5 million. It is being run by my father and me,” he said.

When shown his notebook in which he made entries of allowances he collected, earlier tendered as exhibit by the prosecution, the witness told the court that the entries were not countersigned by those he collected money from.

He further said that the notebook was neither a government record nor a banking record, adding that the recording he did in the notebook was between him and the former governor.

Answering other questions, Lawal told the court that he was asked to go to Lagos by the first defendant and informed that he lodged in hotels, paying N20,000 daily, amounting to N600,000 per month.

According to him, “I was asked to go to Lagos by His Excellency (Ishaku). That was not the first time I had been to Lagos; I have friends and relatives there.

“I stayed in hotels in Lagos. I paid bills for the time I stayed there at N20,000 per day, totalling N600,000 per month. I spent one and seven months there.”

He, however, said he did not tender any hotel receipts, adding that EFCC operatives who arrested him in his hotel room in Lagos carted away some documents, including some of the receipts.

The PW1 told the court that he was taken to the EFCC Lagos office when he was arrested and was brought to Abuja from there the same day. He added that he made a statement to the anti-graft agency in Lagos.

Meanwhile, Justice Oriji has adjourned the case to October 20 for the continuation of cross-examination of the PW1.

(TheGuardian)