EFCC tenders documentary evidence against Kalu, others

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has tendered several bank documents used by Slok Nigeria Limited, a company belonging to the former Abia State Governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, before a Federal High Court, Lagos.

At the resumed trial of the defendants yesterday, the witness, an investigator with the EFCC, who was led-in-evidence by the prosecutor, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, apart from tendering documents, also told the court how the second defendant, Jones Udeogu, told the commission during interrogation that the first defendant, Kalu, used government money to purchase ‘Okirika’ (fairly used clothes).

The witness also told the court how a petition written by an Abia group, ‘Abia Leader Forum,’ was assigned to his team for investigation. The EFCC investigator, who further told the court how the commission wrote letters to some banks that were identified by its intelligence information, said a search was also conducted with a duly signed search warrant at the Slok Nigeria Limited offices in Victoria Island and Apapa, Lagos, where several documents were recovered.

He also stated that some principal officers of Abia State Government House, which include the then Chief of Staff to Kalu, Theodore Orji, who later became the governor of the state, and now a senator; Udeogu, two cashiers of the Government House, Romanus Madu and Michael Akpan Udoh, were invited for interrogation.

The prosecution witness, who is the sixth to be called in the case, further told the court that in the course of the investigation, his team discovered cheques raised on Abia State Government account in the name of serving officers, adding that the said cheques were used to buy drafts from the Inland Bank in the name of Slok Nigeria Limited and pay it into the company’s account with the bank.

Meanwhile, the documents tendered by the EFCC include letters to banks and the banks’ responses and Justice Idris admitted all the documents as exhibits. The matter has been adjourned till tomorrow for continuation of trial.