Tochukwu Aloysius Nnadi and Chinwe Patricia Ebunam, prosecution witnesses in the trial of Willie Obiano, an ex-Anambra State governor, have told the Federal High Court in Abuja that millions from the state’s security vote account were channeled to multiple private entities under the former governor....Read The Full Story Here ▶
Nnadi, a bank manager in Awka, the state capital, testified that documents originating from his bank showed that Easy Diamond Integrated Links, C.I Patty Ventures Nigeria Limited and Xpressive Consult Nig. Limited were among the private beneficiaries of the state’s security vote account outflows.
The witness also said that the Anambra State Government under Obiano had several accounts with the bank he worked for. Some of the bank accounts were the statutory revenue account, the value-added account, the consolidated internal generated revenue account and the security vote account.
“The mandate of the security votes account was operated by the then principal secretary to the governor, Mr Willie Nwokoye, and the accountant at the government house, Theophilus Meize,”Nnadi explained.
“The accounts are funded weekly from various accounts, especially from the consolidated internal revenue account, in which payments are usually made weekly based on the advice from the operators of the account to various entities, be they individual or corporate entities, which I cannot mention here because the names are many, but I recall that I made a statement in the commission, where I listed some of those names there.”
Nnadi also told the court that he submitted the statements of account, the certified true copies to the statements of account, the certificate of identification and the account opening packages to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The court admitted those documents (marked PW A1 to PW A794 and B1 to B432) as evidence.
Ebunam, an Onitsha-based businesswoman and second prosecution witness, said that despite not working for the government, she got N156,800,000 in her account from the state.
“Sometime around 20th May 2022, I received a call from EFCC that they needed me in their office, regarding my company C.I Patty Ventures, about some money that passed through my account, which I told them I don’t know anything about the money that passed through my account,”Ebunam told the court on Tuesday.
“All I knew was that I called my bank account officer, Ugochukwu Otibere, to upgrade my account or post money into my account to enable me to pass the requirements of the embassy so that I can travel. He accepted and collected the details of the company’s account and cheque. He promised me that he will upgrade the account.
“I don’t know anything about the NI56.8 million that passed through my account from the Anambra State Government.”
The EFCC had taken Obiano to court on charges of embezzlement and money laundering to the tune of N4 billion.
