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| Fani Kayode |
More can of worms were recently opened by a prosecution
witness and a legal officer with Otunba Subomi’s Firtst City
Monument Bank (FCMB) who told a Federal High Court,
Lagos, that several forms of deposits running into millions of naira were made
by Femi Fani-Kayode, while he was the Minister of Aviation.
The witness,
SHOWBIZPLUSng gathered, however, said there was no formal report
made to any authority concerning the financial transactions by the former
minister.
At the resumed hearing
of the matter recently, the witness who was led in evidence by the
prosecutor, Mr. Festus Keyamo, told the court that the accused first had
an account with First Atlantic Bank Plc, which later transformed from First
Inland Bank Plc, to Finbank Plc , and now FCMB
He said as a legal
officer of the bank, he collated all statement of account of the accused which
revealed several transactions involving cash, cheques, draft and transfers.
According to the
witness, there were four deposit transactions captured in the accused statement
of account between July 2006 and January 2007. He gave the details as
follows: N660,000, N6 million, N10. 9 million and N3.3 million.
But under cross
examination by Defence Counsel, Mr. Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN), the witness told the
court that no formal report was made by the bank to any authority, in relation
to the statement of account of the accused.
He also told the court
that the transactions in the statement of account of the accused, however, took
place before he assumed office as legal officer of the bank.
He told the court that
all his evidence in court was based on the information he retrieved from the
computer in which the statement of account of the accused was stored.
Justice Rita
Ofili-Ajumogobia has adjourned till today for continuation of trial.
Fani-Kayode was first
arraigned sometime in December 2008 before Justice Ramat Mohammed on a 47-count
charge. He had pleaded not guilty to the charge and Justice Mohammed had
granted him bail in the sum of N200 million with two sureties in like sum.
He was again
re-arraigned before Justice Binta Murtala-Nyako, following the transfer of
Mohammed from the Lagos Division. Fani-Kayode was again re-arraigned before
Justice Ajumogobia on February 11, 2013 after the transfer of Murtala-Nyako.
Ajumogobia is now the
third judge to preside over the case in the last five years, and the charge now
bears 40 counts, after the EFCC dropped seven counts out of the original 47.
In the charge, the
accused was alleged to have transacted with funds exceeding the threshold
allowed by the money laundering, without going through a financial institution.
He was alleged to have
accepted cash payments in the tune of about N100 million, while he held sway as
Minister of Aviation and Minister of Culture and Tourism.
The offence is said to
contravene the provisions of Sections 15(1) (a) (b) (c) (d) and 15 (2) (a) (b)
of the Money Laundering (prohibition) Act, 2004
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