Documents in my petition against Fintiri not verified —Ex-Adamawa SSG

PROSECUTION witness and former Secretary to the Adamawa State Government (SSG), Ibrahim Andrew Welye, on Wednesday told the Federal High Court in Abuja that contracts document used in his petition against a former governor of the state, Alhaji Umaru Fintiri, before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) were not verified.

Meanwhile, the court at the resumed sitting yesterday in the matter, admitted in evidence, a Certified True Copy (CTC) of the contract document for the electrification of Kirchinga, in Madagali Local Government Area, showing that the said contract was awarded since 2009 during the tenure of Admiral Murtala Nyako.

The EFCC had arraigned Fintiri along with Mayim Constructions and Properties Limited before the court on a 5- count charge, bordering on money laundering involving about N1.9 billion alleged proceeds of corruption.

Although, the prosecution counsel, Larry Aso, had vehemently opposed to the admissibility of the document, Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed ruled that the said document has satisfied the relevant provisions of the law, including the Evidence Act, 2011.

Accordingly, the document, which was tendered by the defence counsel Mahmud Magaji (SAN) was admitted in evidence and marked as exhibit C.

Before the proceedings progressed, a copy of the petition written by the witness was shown to him and the witness, who was the SSG to Adamawa State in 2014 told the court under cross examination by Fintiri’s lawyer that he did not go through the documents for the electrification contract and did not also visit the site, because doing so was dangerous.

He disclosed that as the SSG, part of his schedule was to oversee records of other ministries and parastatals but could not recall the exact number of ministries and parastatals in the state

The witness further testified that his schedules in the first one week in office was to coordinate security meetings and headed political departments.

He admitted that although he received communications through files and documents in course of the briefings, he did not access the veracity of the documents in the files as there was no time to analyse or clarify the issues there.

Meantime, the case has been adjourned to June 7, 2017 for continuation of trial.