Prosecution finds ‘discrepancy’ on Rickey Tarfa’s age

A prosecution witness, yesterday, insisted there was discrepancy in Rickey Tarfa’s age declaration.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria is standing trial before Justice A.A. Akintoye of a Lagos State High Court in Igbosere on a 27-count charge bordering on offering of gratification to a public officer, alleged failure to declare assets and falsification of age.

The witness, Tosin Owobo, an operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), under cross examination, said analysis of Guarantee Trust Bank’s response showed Tarfa was born February 23, 1962. An international passport shows his age is 54. The statement he made before the commission put his years at 43.

He said in the course of investigation, the anti-graft agency wrote letters to three banks: Zenith, Fidelity and Guarantee Trust requesting information on Tarfa’s account. He said the Guarantee Trust account of the defendant was a domiciliary one into which he made two payments.

Owobo, who was led in evidence by counsel to the EFCC, Rotimi Oyedepo, said the defendant paid a cash sum of 10,000 U.S. dollars into his Guarantee Trust domiciliary account on November 21, 2013, and a cash deposit of 10,000 U.S. dollars into the same account January 29, 2016.

Justice Akintoye adjourned the matter till today.

At the last adjournment, Owobo revealed how Tarfa allegedly paid money into the bank account of two Federal High Court judges, adding that the EFCC wrote letters to Zenith and Fidelity banks, requesting information on Tarfa and Awa Ajia Nigeria Limited.

He said the response showed the signatory to the company’s account turned out to be Justice Hyeladzira Nganjiwa.

Also featured in the statement of account was one Mohammed Nasir Yunusa, another judge of the Federal High Court.

The witness gave a breakdown of some transactions in the account linking Tarfa and the two judges. He said the defendant made several payments into the account at different times.