At the ongoing trial of former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello and two others, the sixth prosecution witness (PW6) on Wednesday testified that an agency official received over ₦1 billion through four separate transactions of ₦250 million each.
Bello is being prosecuted before Justice Maryanne Anenih of the FCT High Court, Maitama, alongside Umar Shuaibu Oricha and Abdulsalam Hudu by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The EFCC is prosecuting them in a suit marked FCT/HC/CR/778/24, on a 16-count charge bordering on breach of trust.
They were alleged to have committed the criminal breach of trust in respect of the sum of N110, 446,470,089, among others.
Bello and his co-defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against them.
At the resumed hearing in the matter on Wednesday, the PW6, Mshelia Arhyel Bata, a Compliance Officer with Zenith Bank Plc, narrated how Hudu made various cash withdrawals running into billions of Naira from the Kogi State Government House account on different dates between 2016 and 2018.
Led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, Bata told the court that the third defendant withdrew the sum of N110,446,470,089 between January 30 and February 2, 2018, from the account.
The witness had earlier provided various amounts of cash withdrawn by Hudu, including N200 million, which was withdrawn through 21 separate withdrawals on February 12, 2016.
Following the request of adjournment made by counsel for Bello and Oricha, Abdullahi Yahaya SAN, Justice Anenih adjourned until Thursday for cross-examination of PW6 by the defence.
