A witness on Wednesday admitted that the offences under which the former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, were charged to court, were committed between 2011 and 2017, whereas the embattled former Head of Service, Stephen Orosanye retired in November 2010.
The witness who was called by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs Rukkayat Ibrahim, to testify on the matter gave the testimony before a Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja.
The clarification was made during cross examination by Orosanye’s counsel, Ade Okoya Inneh, SAN, in the ongoing trial of the erstwhile HoSF.
Blueprint recalls that at the last sitting, the EFCC tendered as evidence, a copy of the judgment of Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, which convicted and sentenced Maina to 8 years imprisonment.
But in his argument, the defence lawyers believe the judgment has no probative value to the case, saying Orosanye could not have gave approvals from retirement.
Answering questions, the witness (pw20) admitted that count one of the charge upon which Maina was convicted covered a period between 2011 and 2017.
Also, she said that the offences contained in counts two and three of the charge were committed between 2011 and 2017, while in count four, Maina, committed the offence between 2015 and 2018 as well as other counts.
When asked whether Orosanye was in office when all these offences were committed by Maina, the judge interrupted, saying, “it is a matter of address by counsel in the matter.”
On the over N131million that was transferred to the State House account, the witness insisted that due process was not followed because the money was meant for pension fund.
Since the money was appropriated, the witness said it was only through virement that such an amount could have been moved from one department to the other.
When a letter (exhibit CL5B) dated June 17, 2010 written by Orasanye to former President Goodluck Jonathan, pertaining to contingency account was shown to her, the witness said, “I cannot confirm the authenticity of this letter.”
However, she confirmed it was an approval from the presidency.
Also, under cross examination, the witness when shown a document from Unity Bank pertaining to the State House Contingency account, she insisted that her earlier statement was that Orasanye was operating the account after he had been deployed as Head of Service of the Federation.
She further stated that the EFCC investigation did not reveal that Orosanye inserted names of ghost workers in the biometric data capturing.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
