on Sale of Federal Government of Nigeria Houses. PW1 testified
that the 2nd Defendant tried to persuade and comfort them that
the transaction is an objective and then he offered his title
documents of his land in Asokoro behind Ait as collateral. The
evidence of PW2 in both his oral testimony and exhibit 6
addressed to the Executive Chairman, Economic and Financial
Crime Commission stated clearly that the draft cheques received
by the 1st Defendant from PW1 was never presented to the Adhoc Committee for any clearance. By exhibit 6 also, PW2 being
the Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee on sale of Federal
Government of Nigeria Houses stated as follows:“We are thereof of the ardent belief that the drafts were raised
with the intent of defrauding both the Government and possibly
an unsuspecting individual.”
And PW2 in his oral testimony stated that the 2nd Defendant is
not a staff of Ad- hoc Committee. On the otherhand, PW3 the
investigating officer and a member of the team narrated how he
obtained statements of the Defendants, gave evidence how the
N20,000,000.00 was received from PW1 and shared between the
1st,2nd and 3rd Defendants and then concluded as follows:“ I discovered that Zenith bank drafts of N10,000,000.00 each
totalling N40,000,000.00 in favour of Ad-Hoc committee was a
trick just to benefit from the N20,000,000.00 received from the
nominal complainant as the draft cheques were not in their
names.
Now when you juxtapose the evidence of PWs1, 2 ,3 exhibit 6
and the statements of the 1st ,2nd and 3rd Defendants to the
Economic and Financial Crime Commission especially exhibits 8,9
and 10, the facts and circumstances of the activities or roles
played by the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Defendants, the inference that can
be drawn was how to deprived the nominal complainant of the
sum of N20,000,000.00. The two properties in question, that is
situate in Asokoro and Maitama does not exist. Thus, the question
of raising the draft cheques of N20,000,000.00 for each property
to show capacity to pay was only a ploy to convince the nominal
complainant and her husband that the information was real and
for them to part with N20,000,000.00 as facilitation fee.
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