Bank’s ex-boss approved loan for self, witness tells court

Mohammed Goji, a prosecution witness in the trial of the former Managing Director of New Prudential Mortgage Bank Limited, Adetunji Abudu, yesterday told a Federal High Court, Lagos that the accused granted loans to himself without authorisation.

Goji, who is an operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), testified as the first witness. He also revealed how he and his teammates carried out their investigation into the alleged, fraud before Justice Ibrahim Buba.

The accused is being prosecuted on four-count charge bordering on criminal breach of trust, fraud and criminal conversion by the EFCC.

He told the court that they received two complaints against the accused in 2014 and another in 2015, adding that they started their investigation by writing letters to various banks, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the defendant, while the defendant wrote series of statements.

“We found out that the accused person granted the loans to himself without authorization and the approval was not done before the payment of those loans were made. The loans were N35 million and N110 million respectively,” he said.

Among the documents tendered as exhibits were the two petitions, statements of the defendant, letter to CAC and letters to various banks.
He said that during their investigation, they discovered that loan payments were made in favour of the defendant. According to him, the approval to off-set a loan of N50million granted to Total Access Intergrated Concept Limited by Addoser Microfinance Bank was not authorized in accordance with the bank’s policy.

Under cross examination by the defence counsel, Robert Clark (SAN), Goji told the court that he saw the forensic audit report and the disbursement of the loans were not approved.

Abudu was arraigned on February 17, 2016 for allegedly defrauding the bank to the tune of N150 million. The accused pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to him, following which his counsel applied for his bail.

The matter has been adjourned till today April 14, 2016 for continuation of trial.