AG Moeller tendered ‘forged’ police document, witness tells court

THE prosecution’s witness in the on going trial of Kemi Adeloye, the Managing Director of AG Moeller, Mr. Godsday Chukwusa yesterday told a Federal High Court, Lagos that Adeloye, allegedly tendered a forged report which he claimed to be from the police.

    Chukwusa, told the court that the report, dated January 25, 2012, and signed by a deputy commissioner of police in Zone 2 Police Command, was not genuine. The report had purportedly concluded that it was Okorodudu that should be prosecuted over the transaction, he added.

Adeloye was charged with allegedly defrauding Chairman/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cross Country Limited Bube Okorodudu of about N80million between March 2007 and January 2010.

    The money was said to be in excess of a capital sum of N140million which AG Moeller advanced to Cross Country through a contract of finance lease facility “induced by false pretence”. He pleaded not guilty.

    The prosecution counsel, Ralph Nkem, sought to tender another letter dated February 13, 2015, in which the police headquarters disclaimed the report by Zone 2.

    The witness said: “After sometimes, we started noticing some strange actions by the investigating officers at Zone 2 that aroused our suspicion. Subsequently my chairman petitioned the Inspector-General of Police requesting him to step into the matter.”

    According to him, the case was transferred from Zone 2 to IGP’s Monitoring Unit. “I wondered how Zone 2 could issue such a report after almost one year that the case was transferred. We alleged fraud and falsification of the letter in our petition to the IGP. The police later sent us a reply disclaiming the report from Zone 2,” the witness said.

    However, counsel to Adeloye, Mr Kunle Ogunba (SAN), objected to tendering the letter, saying it was not relevant and did not support the charge.

    But Nkem said the date the letter was written did not matter. He urged the court to admit it in evidence for being relevant.

    Chukwusa had earlier testified that sometime in March 2007, Cross Country wrote the defunct Oceanic Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, EBN Finance Limited (a subsidiary of the defunct Intercontinental Bank Plc) and AG. Moeller for finance lease facilities to enable it buy some vehicles.

    He said AG Moeller gave Cross Country N140 million to finance the acquisition of 40 transport buses for commercial use with a tenor of 24 months at 60 per cent interest rate per annum.

    According to him the total sum payable to AG Moeller Ltd at the end of the tenor stood at N228 million.

    “For a transaction of N288million, Cross Country paid about N223million, but AG Moeller said the company was still owing N213million,” the witness said. He insisted that what Cross Country owed AG Moeller, include default charges, was N19million.

The trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, adjourned till March 5 for ruling on the admissibility of the letter from the police disclaiming the report.