A prosecution witness has today told an Abuja High Court sitting in Gudu that former governor of Taraba State, Jolly Nyame, used bank’s suspense account to transfer funds through his friend’s company, Salmon Global Ventures Nigeria Ltd.
Led in evidence by Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), the thirteenth prosecution witness, Ganiyat Bimbo Oyewo, a relationship officer with Unity Bank (Maitama, Abuja) said Salmon Global Ventures owned by one Ibrahim Abubakar maintains a corporate account with Unity Bank.
And that same company had opened a current account with Pacific Bank in 2005 before the bank was absolved by Unity Bank.
She said on the 24/01/2005, a fixed deposit account was opened with the sum of N250million but the amount was dropped in the suspense account of the opening branch and the money was moved out as it came in four days later.
“The suspense account is used most time if the owner of the cash inflow doesn’t have account with the bank but wants to enjoy the fixed deposit rate or if the owner does not want the cash traced to his/her own account.”
She said the N250m cheque was dropped into and cleared through the bank’s and not the customer’s account.
The witness said another N150m on 17/02/2005 came in the same way the first one came and was cleared on 28/02/2005. She added that both fixed deposits were cleared before the assigned date for their liquidation.
She said the interests for both fixed deposits dropped into the current account of Salman Global.
Asked if the transaction can be traced to who collected the money, she said “because both fixed deposit were booked through a suspense account, it is impossible to trace who collected the money.”
However, under cross examination by defense counsel, Hassan Fajimite, the witness said the account had just one signatory and that was one Ibrahim Abubakar. She said the name of Jolly Nyame was not mentioned in the mandates of the accounts nor was any money deposited or withdrawn from the account in the name of Jolly Nyame.
She said the first account was opened in January 2005 and abandoned that same year while the second was opened in 2013 with the same documents.
She added that neither the suspense nor current account was in the name of Jolly Nyame but in the name of Salman Global Ventures Nigeria Ltd.
Justice Adebukola Banjoko adjourned the case to November 7th for continuation of hearing.
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