Nyako’s N29bn Fraud: Witness explains Diamond Bank’s role

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Murtala Nyako, former governor of Adamawa State

Murtala Nyako, former governor of Adamawa State

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Friday, April 22, 2016 presented its fifth witness in the ongoing trial of a former governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, his son, Senator Abdul-Aziz Nyako, Abubakar Aliyu and Zulkifikk Abba.

Nyako and the others are standing trial before Justice E. Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja in a 37-count charge bordering on criminal conspiracy, stealing, abuse of office and money laundering to the tune of N29 billion preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

They are alleged to have at various times between 2011 and 2013, used five companies – Blue Opal Nigeria limited, Serore Farms & Extension Limited, Pagoda Fortunes Limited, Towers Assets Management Limited and Crust Energy Limited to commit the fraud.

The prosecution through its counsel, Adebisi Adeniyi and Leke Atolagbe, sought to present more exhibits against the defendants through the witness, Celestine Idiaye, Cluster Control Manager, Internal Control Unit, of Diamond Bank, Garki branch, Abuja.

Idiaye, who was led in evidence by Atolagbe, told the court that the bank received a letter from the EFCC dated September 23, 2014 requesting for account opening documents and statement of account in respect of Sentinel Exploration and Production Limited, a company linked to Nyako.

“We responded with a letter dated September 30, 2014 and provided two statements of account, account opening documents and certificate of identification,” he said.

He added that at the time of producing the said documents, the bank’s computer systems “were in perfect condition and we compared them with what we have in our database and they were the same”.

The forwarding letter from the bank to which was attached the various documents, were presented in court, and were identified by Idiaye as the documents from Diamond Bank forwarded to the EFCC.

However, Y. …Read More

Source:: PM Newspaper