THE fourth prosecution witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in the alleged money laundering trial of the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, has re-affirmed that fund withdrawals by the state government did not breach any banking law.
During cross-examination before Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court on Monday, Mshelia Arhyel Bata, a compliance officer with Zenith Bank, also reiterated that the name of the former governor did not appear as beneficiary in the account presented as evidence.
The Defence Counsel, Joseph Daudu, SAN, drew the witness’ attention to certain withdrawals by one Umar Comfort Olufunke, which the prosecution did not mention.
The prosecution had concentrated on withdrawals by Abdulsalam Hudu.
The withdrawals, in multiples of N10 million, were between December 2017 and April 2018, with beneficiaries being various hotels in Kogi State, according to the witness.
On cross-examination, the witness also confirmed withdrawals by one Alhassan Omakoji between November 2021 and December 2022, which did not exceed N10 million per withdrawal. He said the withdrawals were in line with the limits set by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
He admitted that he was not aware of any law that regulates how Kogi State Govt spends its money or allocation.
He said apart from the beneficiaries like the hotels, there was no way he could know what the state’s transactions were meant for.
The prosecution counsel, Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, thereafter said he had no re-examination for Mshelia and asked for him to be discharged.
The witness had, at the last hearing, comfirmed that the former governor was neither a signatory to nor connected with any of the accounts presented as evidence.
He admitted that, going through Exhibit 22A, from pages 24 to 413, Yahaya Bello was not also listed on any of the documents as a beneficiary of any transaction.
After Mshelia, the fifth prosecution witness, Jesutoni Akoni, a compliance officer with Ecobank Plc, was examined by another prosecution counsel, Chukwudi Enebeli, SAN.
He tendered a summon letter written to Ecobank, which was admitted in evidence.
The EFCC lawyer also sought to tender a statement of account of Moses Ailetu companies with certificate of identification, from January 1 to January 31, 2016.
The defence counsel did not oppose it and it was admitted as Exhibit 29.
The witness was told to identify the different columns in the statement, which he did.
He was told to confirm cash deposits by the company, which were between N3 million and N20 million, and totalling N57 million.
On cross-examination, the witness confirmed that former governor Bello was not the beneficiary of the said deposits.
“Confirm that any of the deposits you identified carries the name of Yahaya Bello,” Daudu SAN said.
“None of them carries the name, Yahaya Bello,” the fifth witness responded.
Akoni also admitted that it was not possible to discern the source of funds from the face of the documents.
The prosecution, thereafter, introduced its sixth witness, on subpoena from Keystone Bank.
Mohammed Bello Hassan, a relationship officer with the bank, was asked to produce the statements of account of Dantata and Sawoe, which was tendered as Exhibit, along with the certificate of identification. The defence counsel did not object.
After this, a seventh witness, Olomotame Egoro, a compliance officer, on subpoena from Access Bank, was led in evidence by Pinheiro SAN.
He confirmed to the court that he had the 12 sets of documents that had been requested.
“We supplied sufficient customer’s details that were extracted from the account opening packages at the time the customer opened the account,” he said.
The defence counsel did not object to the admission of the account statement proper but kicked against some extractions.
“I am not going to object to the account proper but I will object to all the 12 purported extractions from the account opening documents attached. But I will not object to the statements of account, which were subpoenaed,” he stated.
“Based on our request, he brought other documents believing that we may be in need. We did not actually request for those documents,” Pinheiro SAN responded.
Daudu SAN prayed the court to tell the prosecution to remove “all the extraneous documents attached”.
The prosecution team then began to detach the documents that were regarded as irrelevant.
At this point, Justice Emeka Nwite adjourned the matter to tomorrow, November 11, 2025, for continuation of trial.