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Lukman Olabiyi
A former Director of Finance in Abia State Government House, Mr. Jones Udeogu, has told the Federal High Court in Lagos that his refusal to testify against ex-governor of the state, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, is responsible for his current travail.
According to him, for turning down the request to serve as prosecution witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), against Kalu, is the reason for his trial.
Udeogu, who is standing trial with Kalu and Slok Nigeria Limited, in an alleged N7.2 billion fraud, in continuing his defence, said: “I was asked to be a prosecution witness and I turned it down. That is why I am being prosecuted. It is because I don’t want to work for EFCC to prosecute the first defendant,” he said.
Responding to Udeogu’s allegation, EFCC’s lawyer, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), said the anti-graft agency was at liberty to decide who to use as a prosecution witness.
A Banking and Financial Consultant, Emmanuel Ahunanya, also testified yesterday to prove Udeogu’s innocence.
The witness, who told the court he went into private practice in banking and finance after spending 18 years with the defunct ACB, was questioned extensively on general banking practice by Udeogu’s lawyer, Chief Solo Akuma (SAN).
The third defendant in the case, Slok Nigeria Ltd, also closed its case following the judge’s refusal to grant an adjournment.
Slok’s lawyer, Mr. Kingsley Nwofo (SAN), had pleaded with the judge to grant him a short adjournment to enable him bring in his witness.
In turning down the request, Justice Mohammed Idris said he was constrained from doing so because the hearing of the case was time bound.
Afterwards, the judge gave the prosecution and the defence lawyers 21 days to file their written addresses.
The matter was subsequently adjourned to October 22, 2019, for parties to adopt their written addresses.
Kalu had, in his evidence before the court, denied allegations that he stole N7.2 billion while he was governor of Abia State between 1999 and 2007. He said Abia State under him had no such funds.
The former governor, while responding to a question from his lawyer, Prof. Awa Kalu (SAN) over the allegation, disclosed that there was no way he could steal what was not in existence.
“Abia State didn’t have such amount. Even before leaving office, we borrowed money to pay salaries. Abia State didn’t have even a billion naira in any account at the time I was governor,” he said.
To back up his claim, the former governor, who is currently the Chief Whip of the Senate, also spoke about the difficulties he encountered in running the Abia State with allocations from the federal government.
He said: “The monthly allocation of Abia State when I took over in June 1999 was N168 million. It was hovering between N168 million and N172 million monthly. The first month that I came in, there was even no money to buy diesel. I spent my own money to run the state for six months.
“In the year 2000, monthly allocation was between N170 million and N189 million. In 2001, it came to about N302 million to N380 million. I can recollect in 2002, it was almost the same and in 2003 when the revenue allocation was changed, we were having about N400 million.
“The highest money I got as governor came from 2004 when we had about N1 billion and from that time up till May 2007, before I left, what we got was N1.6 billion.
“Throughout my stay in office, I never owed workers and pensioners. When I took over as governor and before I left, we internally generated revenue moved up to N500 million. It was from this that we were able to do a lot of things.”
