Abdulsalam is facing trial alongside Nnamdi Udoh (still at large), Adegorite Olumuyiwa, Segun Agbolade, Clara Aliche, Joy Ayodele Adegorite, Randville Invesment Limited and Multeng Travels and Tours Limited for allegedly conspiring to induce the Agency to deliver the sum of N2.8billion to Deposit Limited, Air Sea Delivery Limited and Sea Schedule Systems Limited under the pretext that the money represented the cost of clearing NAMA's consignments.
Justice Babs Kuewumi of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Wednesday admitted in evidence documents tendered by the prosecution against Ibrahim Abdulsalam, the embattled former Managing Director of Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), and others.
Abdulsalam is facing trial alongside Nnamdi Udoh (still at large), Adegorite Olumuyiwa, Segun Agbolade, Clara Aliche, Joy Ayodele Adegorite, Randville Invesment Limited and Multeng Travels and Tours Limited for allegedly conspiring to induce the agency to deliver the sum of N2.8billion to Deposit Limited, Air Sea Delivery Limited and Sea Schedule Systems Limited under the pretext that the money represented the cost of clearing NAMA's consignments.
At the resumption of proceedings on Wednesday, Kayode Temitope Olanrewaju, a Compliance Officer with GT Bank, who was led in evidence by Rotimi Oyedepo, the prosecution counsel, told the court that while a staff of Compliance Department of GT Bank, his team received a letter of inquiry from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He said upon receipt of the request, the letter was forwarded to the Business Unit, Foreign Operations Department that handles import duty document verification.
He added that the Unit confirmed to the Compliance Department that the import duty receipts were not issued by the bank.
"From more internal investigations, the said documents could not be confirmed from their records. So, a response was sent back to the EFCC, stating that the purported documents said to have been issued by the bank could not be found in the records of the bank."
The prosecution counsel, through the witness, sought to tender the EFCC letter, dated March 15, 2016 to the Manager, Guaranty Trust Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank's response addressed to the Head of Operations, EFCC, dated March 23, 2016.
The judge admitted and marked the documents as Exhibits C1 and C2, respectively.
When asked why he said the documents were not in their records, the witness told the court that the feedback from the Business Unit confirmed to the Compliance Unit that the documents were not issued by the bank.
During cross-examination of the witness, K.T. Olawoyin, counsel to the first defendant, told the court that the documents emanated from the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and not from the bank. When asked if the bank confirmed from the NCS the authenticity of the document, and if the bank made any inquiries as to the other companies involved before writing to the EFCC, the witness told the court that he personally could not confirm that, adding that he was “aware that the bank has a way of checking from its records, and also checking the authenticity of the document before reporting it to the Compliance Unit”.
Counsel to the third and eight defendants, Adebayo Adedokun, during cross-examination, asked the witness what steps the bank took to confirm the documents that did not emanate from the bank.
In his response, the witness told the court that "the bank has a procedure, which is that the Business Unit, Foreign Operations, checks from the bank's data base, using the information available on the receipt, and sends its finding to the Compliance Unit, which is responsible for interfacing with law enforcement agencies.”
When asked by counsel to the fourth defendant, Abiodun Julius, who generates the import duty payment to the NCS, the witness informed the court that the bank generated the documents via a platform that had been provided by NCS, and that the bank had designated staff who had access to the platform.
"The information written in the letter to the EFCC was also provided from these staff authorized to use the NCS payment platform," he added.
Counsels to the second, fifth, sixth, seventh, ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth defendants had no questions for the witness.
Consequently, Justice Babs Kuewumi discharged the witness and adjourned the case till May 2 and 3, 2019 for continuation of trial.