The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday told the court how former Governor of Jigawa state, Alhaji Sule Lamido and his two sons were involved in the alleged siphoning of the sum of N1.35Bn belonging to the state.
The matter, which had been adjourned from October 2, 2019, continued with the testimony of the prosecution’s 15th witness, PW15, Micheal Wetkas, who shed light on how Lamido, during his tenure as governor, allegedly laundered state funds.
Wetkas, an investigator of the EFCC, narrated how investigations began in 2013, and how the Commission’s investigation and forensic team discovered that huge sums had been paid into Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company’s accounts in Intercontinental (now Access Bank), Zenith and Sterling banks from the Jigawa State treasury.
He said: “The second defendant (Aminu Sule Lamido) was arrested in 2012 at the Aminu Kano airport for possession of undeclared funds. When the matter was eventually referred to the Commission, preliminary investigations revealed his links to a number of companies which we further investigated.”
“In the course of investigations, we discovered that during the time that the first defendant (Lamido) was the Governor of Jigawa State, Dantata & Sawoe Construction Company was the biggest and ‘the main’ contractor at the time.
“We also discovered that between 2007 and 2013, the company had been awarded contracts with a cumulative cost up to N30Bn.”
He said: “However, we discovered discrepancies in the journals received.
The trial was however adjourned to November 25, 26, and 27, 2019.