A Federal High Court in Abuja has postponed Ali Bello and his co-defendants’ money laundering trial until September 24 for further proceedings.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu reached the ruling after defense counsel Nureini Jimoh, SAN, completed the cross-examination of the EFCC’s second prosecution witness, Olomotane Egoro, who was subsequently re-examined by the anti-graft agency’s lawyer, Abbas Mohammed.
Justice Egwuatu dismissed Egoro, an Access Bank Complaint Officer, from the witness box and set more hearings for September 24 and 26.
In the case marked FHC/ABJ/CR/573/2022, the EFCC is prosecuting Bello and three others on charges of an alleged N3 billion fraud.
Bello is the first defendant, with Abba Adaudu, Yakubu Siyaka Adabenege, and Iyadi Sadat being the second to fourth defendants, respectively.
Earlier in the session, Jimoh, representing the second to fourth defendants, applied for Exhibits E to N. During cross-examination, Egoro, who was stationed in Abuja in 2023 due to proximity to law enforcement agencies, clarified that he had never worked at the Access Bank branch or head office in Lagos.
In previous testimony, Egoro stated that Ali Bello neither lodged nor withdrew money in the bank statements presented during the proceedings.
He admitted that most transactions identified from the accounts of the second to fourth defendants, initially suspected to be proceeds of money laundering, were actually from a N2 billion loan accessed by the fourth defendant’s company.
