Saraki: Blackout forces tribunal adjourn till 18 April

[caption id="attachment_31840" align="alignnone" width="484"] Senator Bukola Saraki: in the dock[/caption] Ayorinde oluokun/Abuja The riveting trial of Nigeria's Senate President, Bukola Saraki is now on interlude. Though Justice Danladi Umar was prepared to allow the first prosecution witness. Michael Weskat continue his evidence-in-chief as led by Rotimi Jacobs, the prosecution counsel, power failure at the Court around 4.55 pm forced the Tribunal to adjourn proceedings. Justice Umar adjourned proceedings to 18 April after admitting as evidence letters sent to FCT Development Control and AGIS in respect of No 1 and No 3 Targus Street, Maitama Abuja. The documents confirmed Saraki as the owner of the properties as well as the date the properties were purchased. Also admitted were letters written to CAC to confirm the ownership of companies the defendant declared in his assets declaration form and some other companies and the responses from the CAC to the letters. The documents were admitted as exhibit by the Court as the defence counsel said he reserved his objections to the documents. The defence has also given undertaking to begin its cross examination of the witness on the adjourned date. Earlier Weskat had disclosed that Saraki continued to draw salaries from Kwara State, up till August 2015. Saraki was the governor between May 2003 and May 2011. He was elected Senator for Kwara central in 2011. Weskat told the Court that the EFCC wrote Access Bank to furnish it with the salary of the defendants to enable it know the income of defendants when he was governor of Kwara State. "In the statement, the salary that was coming into the account was 254,412.55kobo as salary for July 2007. "The salary paid for May 2011 was 291,124.00. The salary was paid on 3 June, 2011 as Kwara State government May 2011 salary. On 4 July, 2011, there was another payment June 2011 salary of N572,286,32 kobo. "On 29 August 2011, there was another payment of another N744,002.22kobo. "On 29 September, 2011, September salary and the sum is N740, On 27 October 2011, October salary for N1,165, 466.12. "On the 7 Dec 2011, there was payment of the same amount. "Then on 28 Dec 2011, there was payment of the same amount into the account as December pension. "On 1 February, 2011, the same amount, but the narration is salary. He also disclosed details of how money moved in and out of Saraki's accounts, to sidetrack Nigeria's money laundering laws. Naira currency account:. The first date of transaction on the account was 23, March, 2005 when there was cash lodgement of N10 million by one Abdul who was discovered to be Personal Assistant of the defendant. Weskat said on 24 March, 2005, there was a cash deposit by the same Abdul of N8.2 million. On 29 March, there was a transaction of N240m in favour of the Presidential Implementation Committee on Sale of Government Properties. It was a draft for the purchase of property from the Implementation Committee. Also, on same 29 March, there was a loan disbursement of N200 million which preceded the bank draft. On 16 October 2006, there was a disbursement of a loan of N380 million and the same day, there were 2 bank drafts in favour of the Implementation Committee combined in one transaction for the sum of N256, 312,815- the total sum of the two drafts. On 16, October, 2006, there was another draft of N12.8 million also in favour of the Implementation Committee. Wetkas said the drafts are meant for purchase of property from the implementation Committee by the defendants. On 5, February, 2007, there was a loan disbursement by GTB into the account of the sum of N380 million. How the Account was funded /Repayment of Loan On 27, Feb 2007, there was a cash deposit by Josiah Samuel of N3 million. Then on 3 April, 2007, there was telegraphic transfer of N180. 625million. It was done on the instruction of the defendant as part payment for another property from the Implementation Committee. On 5 Sept 2007, one Ubi made cash lodgements in five tranches for the sums of N11 million, N20 m, N20 m, 20m, and N6 million, making N77 m in one day. The account was in debit balance of N81, 960,289.12 before the lodgement. On 22, November, 2007, there was cash lodgement into the account by Abdul Adama in 50 different transactions making a total of N45m. Before the lodgement, the account was in debit balance of over N80 million. On 29 Nov, there was also cash lodgements by Ubi in over 20 transactions and the total sum is about N20 million. On 4 March, 2008, there was cash lodgement by different individuals. Before then, the account was in deficit of over N96m. On I8, April, 2008, cash lodgements by several individuals with different names. On 23, Sept. 2008, there were several cash lodgements also by different individuals. On 30 April, 2009, there was a draft in favour BGL Assets Management Limited in the sum of N400 million. There were several cash lodgements by different individuals on that same day. There was a lodgement of N65 million on that day after which there was a loan disbursement of N400 million. On 26 October 2009, there were cash lodgements by different individuals-87 lodgments in all. The money was deposited to defray the loans because the account was in debit balance. The deposits were not made at once to beat the Money Laundering Law. Wetkas said even the bankers confirmed that was why the deposits were staggered. He said his team demanded for the deposit slips from GTB and raised issues with the bank because there were no details of individuals who pay in the money. Since there was no address on the deposit slips, we could not trace the depositors as the deposit slips were not filled in a normal way. But GTB defended itself by saying it had since reported the transaction to NFIU. On 5 Nov. 2009, there was also cash lodgements by several individuals. Exhibit P8 This is Saraki's dollar account. On 18 May, 2009, there was cash lodgement by Todimu of eight thousand dollars. On that same day, he lodged in another eight thousand dollars. On the same 18th, there was another lodgement of four thousand dollars by one Bayo, a banker. On the 19 May, there were deposits of 10,00 dollars each into the account. The last three deposits were made by the defendant himself. Then, there was a lodgement on 50,000 dollars on 12, June, 2009 by one Garba Dare. Then, one 99, 925 dollars by one Din Dahuuh, a BDC. On 26 Aug 2009, there was 49,969 dollars by Carlisle Property and Investment Ltd. On 7 Sept 2009, there was 59,964 dollars by the same company. The transfer to this account- the outflow were basically made to American Express Services Europe Limited. Part of the outflows were to BDCs. From our investigations, the transfers from this account to American Express Services Europe Ltd account was up to $3,4million dollars. Part of the outflow also is to the Pound Sterling Account. The foreign currencies were transferred to American Services Euro Ltd acct no 730580 and the beneficiary banks according to telex for transfer are American Express Bank, New York. One of the telex, used for a transaction on 25, Aug 2008 for the sum of 73,223.28 dollars was tendered. Exhibit 9 This is the Pound Sterling Account There were 6 transactions: three deposits and three outflows of over one million, five hundred and sixteen thousand pounds.s The inflows were from the dollar account. Loan of N375m by GTB to the defendant on 10 Feb 2010, the purpose was for the purchase of property in London. The loan was paid into the defendants personal naira account on 11, Feb 2010 and from the naira account, it was paid into the Bureau De Change which paid the equivalent in dollars to the dollar account. On 12 February, the sum of N184,8million was paid to Sun and Sand Industries Ltd. On the 15 Feb, 2010, the sum of N153 million was transferred to Mumin and Services Ltd for exchange to dollars. The money was transferred to the dollars account and was later transferred to Fortis Bank SA/NV for mortgage redemption. The beneficiary of the transfer is Dr. B. Saraki. Wetkas identified the petition sent to the EFCC by Kwara Freedom Network in which the group asked EFCC to investigate management of Kwara State account from 2003 to 2007. There were four petitions from the same organisation. Another petition was from the Concerned Pensioners of Nigeria, Kwara State branch.