The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has opened its money laundering case against the former governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano, by producing two witnesses who testified before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Obiano was governor of Anambra State from March 2014 to March 2022.
He is facing a nine-count charge the anti-graft agency preferred against him.
The EFCC, among other things, alleged that the erstwhile governor looted over N4 billion from the state treasury.
It told the court that the funds were siphoned from Anambra State’s Security Vote Account, converted into dollars and handed to the defendant in cash.
During Tuesday’s trial, the commission presented a banker, Mr Tochukwu Aloysius Nnadi, as its first prosecution witness, PW-1.
Nnadi, told the court he was a bank manager at Awka, the capital of Anambra State.
Narrating what he knew about the case, the PW-1 said: “My lord, as part of our responsibilities, we manage customers’ accounts and interface with various security and anti-graft agencies regarding enquiries on a customer’s account.
“We usually comply by providing the requested information.
“I know the defendant in this matter. He is the immediate past governor of Anambra State.
“In April 2022, I was informed by our compliance unit that I was needed at EFCC in respect of activities of the past administration of Anambra State.
“I went there with two of my colleagues. The EFCC told me that my invitation was regarding an ongoing investigation.
“I was told that it was because I was the branch manager who handled most of the financial activities of the then-state government.
“The state government maintains various accounts with our bank, and one of such accounts was for security votes.
The security votes account was nothing special. It was like every other account that we managed for the state government.
“The account was mostly funded by the office of the Accountant General of the state, and the bulk of the funds came from Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, of the state.
“Payments into the account were made on a weekly basis, and all transactions out of the account were always based on the advice of the account operators.
“The payments we made from the account were to various entities and corporate organisations.
“We supplied documents containing names of all the beneficiaries to the EFCC,” the witness added.
However, he declined the prosecution counsel, Mr. Sylvanus Tahir (SAN) request to mention the names of some of the beneficiaries in open court, saying it would breach his “oath of secrecy.”
Justice Inyang Ekwo adjourned further hearing in the matter to June 26.
