The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) on Friday, 5th December,
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, and 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 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 Defence
counsel asked the witness if he knew about the revised version of the Ogun
State master plan, to which he answered, no.
The defence 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.
