Akingbola’s lawyer to court: EFCC’s witness lied | Nairalaw

Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), counsel for defunct
Intercontinental Bank Managing Director Dr Erastus Akingbola,
Wednesday accused a prosecution witness, Abdulraheem Jimoh, of
“deceiving the court”.

He said the witness claimed to have obtained a Master’s Degree
when he did not.

Jimoh was testifying in Akingbola’s trial by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before Justice Mojisola
Olatoregun of the Federal High Court in Lagos.

He had on Tuesday testified that Akingbola repaid his companies’
debt using the bank’s N10billion.

Led in evidence by the prosecuting counsel Rotimi Jacobs (SAN),
Jimoh, who was Intercontinental Bank’s Chief Inspector, said
Wednesday: “These payments were used to settle the indebtedness of
the companies in which Dr Akingbola and his wife had majority
shareholding.”

He said there were no loans granted to the companies.

“I carried out the investigation in my capacity as chief
inspector of the bank. I submitted my report to the management,
which was forwarded to the EFCC.

“In all the transactions, they involved companies which Dr
Akingbola and his wife were beneficial owners,” he said.

Under cross-examination, Olanipekun asked Jimoh about his
academic qualifications.

The witness said he obtained his first degree from the Ahmadu
Bello University in 1982.

He said he obtained additional qualifications, but did not
mention a Master’s Degree.

Olanipekun alleged that Jimoh had earlier claimed before an
Ikeja High Court (where Akingbola was first tried) that he had a
Master’s degree.

“We will expose you for who you are. You told another court that
you had a Master’s Degree when you do not. You are here to mislead
this court as you did previously in Ikeja,” Olanipekun said.

The witness said he enrolled for the Master’s programme, but
could not conclude it because he did not complete the projects.

Olanipekun said: “Your course became abridged because of
examination malpractices for which you were involved.”

The witness said: “No sir”, adding that he stated he had a
Master’s degree because he had “a statement of attendance”.

Before the trial commenced yesterday, EFCC re-arraigned
Akingbola on an amended charge, which was reduced from 26 to 22
counts. He pleaded not guilty.

Jacobs said the counts “were reduced for easy understanding,”
but Olanipekun countered him by saying that “a lot of things were
brought into” the amended charge.

The case was first handled by Justice Charles Archibong, who
struck out the charge for lack of diligent prosecution. EFCC
appealed.

Last May, the Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeal’s
decision overruling Justice Archibong and directing Akingbola to
face trial in the 10-year-old case.

The prosecution alleged that Akingbola, between November 2007
and July 2008, approved a credit facility of N8billion each to
Soo-Kok Holding Limited, Tofa General Enterprises, Cinca Nigeria
Limited; Harmony Trust and Investment Limited and Stanzus
Investment Limited.

EFCC said the illegal transactions were carried out in
contravention of “accepted practice or Intercontinental Bank Plc’s
regulations.”

It said Akingbola violated Section 15(1)(a)(i) of the Failed
Banks (Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Banks Act,
Cap F2, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and was liable to
be punished under Section 16(1)(a) of the same Act.

The prosecution alleged that under Akingbola’s watch,
Intercontinental Bank had N87.6billion non-performing credit
burden.

It said Akingbola failed to take all reasonable steps to ensure
compliance with the requirement to maintain, at all times, the
minimum capital adequacy ratio specified by the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) in compliance with Section 13(1) of the Banks and
Other Financial Institutions Act, Cap B3 Laws of the Federation
2004.

Trial continues Thursday.

JAMB Fixes New Date in April for Mock Exam

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation has fixed Monday, 1st
April, 2019 for its 2019 mock examination earlier scheduled for
Saturday, 23rd March,2019. This change is due to certain
circumstances beyond the Board’s control.

Candidates who had indicated interest in the mock examination at
the point of registration and have since printed their mock
examination notification slips need not print another one. All the
details on the slips remain the same except the examination date
which is now 1st April, 2019.

The Board has also scheduled to conduct the 2019 Unified
Tertiary Matriculation examination (UTME) from Thursday, 11th
April, 2019. Candidates are to begin the printing of the 2019 UTME
notification slips from Tuesday,2nd April,2019.

All candidates who registered for the 2019 UTME are to ensure
that they print their examination notification slips before the day
of the examination as no excuses would be entertained.The public
should note that the Board would not reschedule examination for any
candidate.

Candidates can print their slips anywhere.
Nigerians would recall that the Board had closed the sale of its
Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination and Direct Entry
application document on Thursday,21st February,2019. At the close
of the sale and subsequently close of registration portal, it was
discovered that 41,063 candidates created profile and procured
either UTME or DE ePINS but were unable to complete their
registration formalities after initiating the process. In view of
this consideration the Board has open the registration portal
effective from Wednesday 13th March, 2019 for all candidates with
either UTME or DE ePINS to complete their registration formalities.
The portal would be closed on Friday, 15th March,2019 by
12midnight.

This opportunity is for only candidates who had created profile
and procured UTME or DE ePINS before the close of registration
portal as the sale of ePINS had since been closed.
Please endeavour to register before Friday midnight if you are
holding any of the ePINS (UTME/DE).

Dr. Fabian Benjamin
Head of Media
JAMB