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 conspiring to induce NAMA 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 today’s sitting, Kayode Temitope Olanrewaju, a Compliance Officer with Guaranty Trust Bank, (GTB) who was led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, told the court that, while as a staff in the Compliance Department of GTBank, his team received a letter of inquiry from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which upon its receipt, was forwarded to the Business Unit, Foreign Operations Department, which handles import duty document verification.
He added that the Business 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," he said.
The prosecution counsel tendered the EFCC letter to the Manager, Guarantee Trust Bank , dated March 15, 2016 and Guarantee Trust Bank's response addressed to the Head of Operations, EFCC, dated 23 March 2016, which the judge admitted and marked as "exhibits C1 and C 2" respectively.
Counsel to the first defendant, K.T. Olawoyin, during cross-examination of the witness, told the court that the documents emanated from the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and not from the bank.
When asked if the bank confirmed the authenticity of the document from the NCS and if the bank made inquiries as to the other companies involved before writing to the EFCC, the witness told the court that he personally could not confirm that, stating 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 that the documents 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 findings to the Compliance Unit, which is responsible for interfacing with Law Enforcement Agencies.
When asked by counsel to the fourth defendant, Abiodun Julius, who generated 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.
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 to May 2 and 3, 2019 for continuation of trial.
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