Press Release
The Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Friday, December 5, 2014 presented
another set of witnesses in the trial of a former Governor of Ogun
State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel.
Daniel is being prosecuted on a 38-count charge of stealing public funds, bribery, fraudulent conversion of public property and false declaration of assets to the tune of N211.3million.
At the last adjourned
date Thursday December 4, 2014, prosecuting counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, SAN,
had presented a witness, Mr. AJibola Kaka, who is the legal representative
of one Mr. Adeniyi Adenuga whose land was appropriated by the former governor.
In his testimony,
Kaka explained to the court how his client, Adenuga called him, sometime
in 2004 to tell him that he received a letter from the Bureau of
Lands and Survey, inviting him for a meeting with the Surveyor General.
The outcome of the
meeting was that the government wanted to use his client's land in
Government Reservation Area, GRA, Sagamu for public purpose and that the
government will relocate his client to a nearby land.
"My client later
called to tell me that he was satisfied with the land re-allocated to him, but
much later, he told me that he was not given a letter of allocation. At
that instant, I advised him to fence the land and also complained to the Bureau
which he did. However, after the fence was constructed, some people
came into the land and started erecting a structure, a twin duplex
apartment.
“At that point when
my client told me of the development, I advised him to go and put a gate but he
was stopped by the same people constructing the
apartment. Eventually, some people from the press met me, requesting
for an interview regarding the property and I told them what I knew about
it", he said.
Consequently, Kaka
said his client called him again, telling him that he was invited by the Bureau
regarding the interview he granted to the press and asked Kaka to represent him
in the meeting. At the meeting, Kaka said that a fresh offer of another land
was made to his client. The offer was accepted but compensation was demanded
for the fence already constructed on the initial land allocated to
Adenuga.
"Mr Akogunu and
I agreed on a payment of N2, 500,000 (Two Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira
Only) as compensation to my client which was paid to me in cash,"
Kaka said.
When asked by Jacobs whether
the initial land was used for public purpose as stated by the Bureau, Kaka said
he discovered that the land was used to build a personal house for the former
governor.
The defense counsel,
Professor Taiwo Osopitan, SAN, while cross examining the witness asked him,
whether he was instructed by his client to come and give a testimony. Jacob
quickly came in and stressed that his testimony was proper and legal.
Justice Olarenwaju upheld the prosecution's argument, saying that the
witness is a witness of the state. Justice Olarenwaju discharged the
witness and Mrs. Bolanle Ayunuga was invited by Jacob as his second witness.
Mrs. Ayunuga, former
Head, Revenue Section of the Bureau of Lands and Survey, in her testimony,
disclosed that she was in charge of the preparation of weekly and monthly
revenue report and supervision of revenue staff.
She said sometime in
2012, operatives of the EFCC came to her office, requesting for evidence
of payment in respect of Mr. and Mrs. G. O Daniel, Aron Nigeria
Limited, Gateway Foundation and others she could not remember.
She said after going
through their record, she could only find evidence of registration
payment and Administrative charges but the evidence of premium capital
contribution and survey were not there.
Justice Olarenwaju,
after listening to all the testimonies, adjourned proceedings to Friday
December 5, 2014.
At the resumed hearing today, Jacobs presented two more witnesses:
Christopher Olusanjo Oyebade and Meojuola Oladimeji Baderinwa, who work with
the Bureau of Land and Survey, Abeokuta and Sagamu Zonal Office respectively.
The first witness, Oyebade, a retired Assistant Surveyor General, was
the Principal Technical Officer in Abeokuta Zonal Office at the time the
alleged offence was committed.
He explained to the court that sometime in March 2004 the then Surveyor
General sent him on assignment to Sagamu Zonal office, where he carried
out survey on a parcel of land at Sagamu GRA as instructed.
Exhibit 13 was shown to the witness and he identified it as the 1.6
hectares of land he was asked to survey but denied any knowledge of the
original owner of the land when asked by Jacobs.
Asked whether there was any building on the land at the time he carried
out the survey, the witness said there was a dual perimeter fence on the
property and beacons at the boundaries which showed that a survey had already
been executed on the land.
The witness also denied receiving any payment in respect of the survey.
The second prosecution witness, Baderinwa who was the Zonal Surveyor in
the Sagamu office of the Bureau, from 2009 to 2012, while explaining what
transpired in 2012, disclosed that sometime in 2012 he was accompanied by
operatives of EFCC to Sagamu for inspection and identification of some property
in Sagamu GRA but could not remember their exact location.
He further revealed that after they identified the land, EFCC operatives
requested for composite plan of the property. “The composite plan comprise of a
number of plots. I later subdivided the contents of the plots and revealed the
plots as they were before being merged to become one”, he told the court.
The witness was shown the Sagamu Master Plan as well as the composite
plan of the lands for identification. They were eventually tendered in evidence
by the prosecution and marked as exhibit 57 and 58 respectively.
Mr. Baderinwa further told the court that exhibit 58 shows that Plots
1a, 1b, 1c were merged together with plot 12, NEPA quarters and another piece
of land that was supposed to be a road going by the master plan, to become one
Plot.
When asked by the prosecuting counsel if it is normal practice in his
profession to conduct a survey on a road, he answered, NO!
He also confirmed that the content of exhibit 58 (The composite plan)
distorted the master plan of Sagamu.
During cross examination, the Defense counsel asked the witness if he
knew about the revised version of the Ogun State master plan, to which he
answered, no.
The defense counsel then requested the court for adjournment in order to
produce the revised version of the master plan.
Justice Olrenwaju adjourned the case to 16th January, 4th
and 5th February 2015 for continuation of trial.
Wilson Uwujaren
Head, Media &
Publicity
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