Ali Bello Vs. EFCC: Court adjourns hearing to May 22

Hearing in the case filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against Ali Bello and another over alleged N3 billion fraud has been adjourned to May 22.

Prosecution opened their case against the defendant by calling two witnesses, compliance officers from Zenith Bank, Daniel Udoh and from the United Bank for Africa (UBA), Bananda Edward. 

Rotimi Iseoluwa Oyedepo (SAN) was lead counsel for EFCC in the case filed with suit no FCH/ABJ/CR/550/2022. 

The first witness tendered, in evidence, bank statements of Kogi State Government and a certificate of compliance, which were admitted in evidence. 

The defence counsel, A.M. Aliyu, objected to the admissibility of the two documents, stating that he would address his objection in his final written address. 

During cross-examination, Udoh admitted that the bank statement he presented did not belong to Kogi State Government, but to the Government House administration, adding that he does not know the defendants in the matter.  He said he was not a staff in the Information and
Technology (IT) department of his bank, and was not involved in entry of the information that had been printed out as bank statement. 

The second witness, Bananda Edward, a compliance officer with UBA, also tendered the statement of account of Kogi State Government House (Exhibit C) and the Certificate of Compliance (Exhibit D).  He gave an account of inflow and outflow from the said account from September 1, 2021, to April 2022. 

The defence counsel objected to the evidence relating to Government House cashier, Abdulsalam Hudu, on the ground that he was not a defendant in the matter. He challenged it on the basis of relevance to the instant action, and said his objection would be raised in his final written address.