Kalu’s name nowhere in Abia statement of account as beneficiary –EFCC witness

By Lukman Olabiyi

Tunde Adeniyi David, who is the third prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of former Abia State Governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu and two others, over alleged fraud yesterday told the  Federal High Court, Lagos, that the former governor’s name did not appear in any statement account as beneficiary of any money.
He made the disclosure while being cross-examined by Kalu’s lawyer, Goddy Uche (SAN) .
He said: “There is no where in the statements of account where Orji Uzor Kalu’s name was mentioned. Orji Uzor Kalu’s name did not, also, feature on the mandate card as one of the signatories to the account.
“In the statements of account, there were no debit in respect of purchase of drafts, but there were debits in respect of withdrawals.  I never served as an account officer to the Government House and I never participated in feeding the information supplied on the statements of account to the computer.”
David said most of the transactions also took place in Umuahia. “The statements of account of Government House was printed from the data base of Umuahia domiciled in our server,” he said.
While being cross-examined by the second defendant’s lawyer, Solo Akuma (SAN), the witness said since the Government House account was an operation account, it might be used to run the business of Abia State Government.
He had earlier revealed, while being led in evidence in chief by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)’s lawyer, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), that the statement of account of the Government House was opened at the defunct Citizens Bank.
Further hearing in the trial has been adjourned to June 5.
The judge had, at the last hearing of the matter, directed the EFCC to ensure proper service of all documents it intends to use in the prosecution of the case on the defendants.
The directive was sequel to the objections raised by the defendants’ lawyers to the admissiblity of a document sought to be tendered by the EFCC’s lawyer, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) as exhibit.
Jacobs had, in the course of examining the third prosecution witness, Tunde Adeniyi David, tendered the statements of account of Abia State Government House and urged the court to admit same as exhibits.  This move was, however, objected to by the defence lawyers on the ground that the document was different from what was front-loaded by the prosecution in the proof of evidence.