Alleged N587.7 Million Fraud: Witness Reveals How ECOWAS Commission Fund Was Moved + The GTBank Connection

The trial of Mohammed Dangana, a staff of the Economic Community of West African States Commission continued today, Thursday , November 14, 2019 before Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja with the testimonies of prosecution witness 2 (PW2), Becky Uju, a staff of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) Plc.

Dangana, an executive assistant to the Financial Controller, ECOWAS Commission Secretariat Abuja, is facing prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on a 15-count charge, bordering on criminal diversion of funds, misappropriation and money laundering to the tune of over N587.7m.

He was arraigned alongside Saleh Dangana(Financial Controller, ECOWAS) and Aliyu Ndagi (both still at large) on October 18,2019.

At today’s trial, Uju explained how funds were transferred and received from Mohammed Dangana’s account and the involvement of Saldano Chambers, which Saleh Dangana and Ndagi are signatories to.

The witness who is a compliance officer with GTB, while being led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Wahab Shittu, made available in court, copies of the subpoena and statements of accounts of Mohammed Dangana and those of Saldano Chambers; also certificate of identification and account opening documents of both accounts. The documents were admitted in evidence by the court and marked as Exhibit D1, D2, E1-E46 and F1-F69 respectively.

According to the witness, Mohammed Dangana is the signatory to Mohammed Dangana’s account with GTB, while Saleh Dangana and Alhaji Aliyu Ndagi are signatories to Saldano Chambers.

The witness further revealed that there were various credit entries on May 31, 2016, from two different accounts to Mohammed Dangana’s account. These include: N5million, N4million and N1million that were transferred from Saldano Chambers. He also revealed that N10million and N410,000 were wired from Al-Inab Global Concept Limited to the defendant’s account on same date, totaling N20, 410,000.00.

On June 30, 2016, he said that there were two credit transfer of N3million and 500,000.00 from Dukawa Enterprises Nigeria Ltd to Mohammed Dangana’s account, while on August 1, 2016 there were four credit entries of N2million each at different times from Dukawa Enterprises Ltd, and N3.5million from same company.  Others are: N230,000,from a source the witness said its name was unclear and N500,00.00 from Dangana Saleh.

On August 2, 2016 another N3.5m and additional N1.158million, he said, were wired to Mohammed Dangana’s account from Dukawa Enterprises.

On August 4, 2016, N1.5million was transferred from Dashad Nigerian Limited to Mohammed Dangana’s Account.

He further reveals that N5million and N1million were debited from Saldano Chambers in favour of Sule Garba on August 6, 2016.  Similarly, anotherN1,450.000.00 was moved from  Saldano Chambers on August 8, 2016 to Mohammed Dangana’s account.

 

Another transaction, he said was made on August 15,2016, involving  N4,350.00 from Recovery Package in favour of Mohammed Dangana. Similarly on August 22, 2016, another transfer to the tune of N3.9million came from Recovery Package  to Mohammed Dangana’s account.

 

On October 25, 2016, he said the sum of N1,764,301.60 was credited to SAMTL Properties Limited from Mohammed Dangana’s account, and that on November 15, 2016, the defendant made a transfer to Bello Mohammed Sani to the tune of N1,050,000.00.

During cross-examination by defense counsel Chukwuma Oyenzugwume, the witness told the court that he was not an account officer to any of the accounts, and did not take part in the opening of the accounts.

Matter was adjourned until November 28, 2019   for continuation of trial.