Alleged N1.9bn Fraud: EFCC Presents Witnesses Against Former Deputy Director FMWH

Court

By JUMOKE SANNI
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Thursday, May 15, 2025, presented First Prosecution Witness, PW, William Abimbola in the ongoing trial of a former deputy director, Highways, of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Augustine Ojo Olowoniyan, alongside a surveyor, Sulaiman Abdulkadir Muhammed of the Department of Highways and Planning before Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court, Apo, Abuja.

They are being prosecuted on a three-count charge bordering on alleged diversion and misappropriation of public funds amounting to N1,936,961,649.00 (One Billion, Nine Hundred and Thirty-six Million, Nine Hundred and Sixty-one Thousand, Six Hundred and Forty-nine Naira ), contrary to Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.

The sum is reportedly earmarked for the acquisition of titles for federal roads nationwide between March 4, 2019, and July 17, 2020, which they allegedly converted to their personal use.

In Thursday proceedings, the witness, a compliance officer with the United Bank of Africa, UBA, while being led in evidence by prosecuting counsel, Abba Mohammed, SAN, stated that the bank received a request letter from EFCC, concerning an investigation on accounts of some of their customers.

According to him, the first defendant, Olowoniyan, has three accounts with the bank, while Mohammed, the second defendant also has an account with the bank. He also disclosed that he received yet another letter from the Commission regarding another customer, Ogueri Paschal, whom he said, had two accounts with the bank.

“The EFCC requested for statements of accounts and account opening packages. The statement was extracted from the system of the bank’s server and compared with what we have on the computer to ensure that it is the same. Our information is stored in the computer. We retrieve soft copies which were then sent to printers to generate hard copies. After generating the hard copies, we printed the documents, that is, the statement of accounts opening packages. I compared the printout with what was on the system to ensure that it was accurate. The details were the same. This was then dispatched to the EFCC with a cover letter and certificate of identification. I signed the certificate on behalf of my supervisor, Edward Balande because he was on leave at that time in Lagos,” he said.