Digital switch-over: Mba, others shared NBC’s N2.9bn, says Witness

A prosecution witness, Abubakar Madaki, has given an account of
how a former Director-General of the National Broadcasting
Commission, Emeka Mba and four others, fraudulently transferred
N2.9bn belonging to the commission to different private bank
accounts.

He gave the narrative before Justice Mojisola Giwa-Ogunbanjo of
the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is prosecuting Mba
alongside former NBC director of finance, Patrick Areh, alleged
owner of Technology Advisor, Basil Udotai, and Babatunji Amure,
alleged owner of Divine Partners and Technology Advisors.

They are on trial for alleged criminal diversion and stealing of
NBC’s funds to the tune of N2.9bn meant for the purchase of setup
boxes for a switch-over from the current analogue to digital system
of broadcasting in the country.

The EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren explained in a statement on
Friday that Madaki, who appeared as the 13th prosecution witness,
tendered a total of 16 documents as exhibits, unearthed in the
cause of investigating the fraudulent transactions.

The prosecution counsel, Chile Okoroma, tendered the Certified
True Copies of the exhibits in court.

Madaki revealed to the court that in 2015, Mba and Areh made an
inflated fixed deposit of the sum of N13.890bn, as collateral with
Zenith Bank to enable them to offset the liabilities accruing from
the execution of the digital setup boxes.

“We discovered that the entire sets of boxes were to cost N9bn
and some fractions, however for reasons best known to the first and
second defendant, N13.890bn was paid to Zenith Bank,” he added.

He disclosed that on September 10, 2015, the first and second
defendants issued a mandate order to the bank to move the funds to
other accounts without reference to the first letter of claims of
the collateral.

“On 10, 2015, the first and second defendants sent a letter to
the bank, contrary to the first letter of claims that the funds
should be moved out of that account to a Zenith bank’s collateral
account, which became suspicious,” he said.

According to him, that was why he probed the transaction and
discovered that only N3.7bn out of the N13bn was used to raise the
letter of credit for the manufacturing of the setup boxes.

He explained that the balance of N10.61bn and some fractions was
ordered to be transferred to EFCC’s recovery account, after which
former President Goodluck Jonathan directed that the funds should
be moved back to NBC’s account to enable them to continue their
work.

Justice Ogunbanjo adjourned the proceeding to October 22, 23 and
24, for continuation of trial.