Witness narrates how Ex-HoS, allies diverted public funds to private companies in court
Emails Used For Fraud Don’t Belong To Suspects — Witness
By Joseph Ayinde
An investigating officer with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mubarak Sade, has told a Federal High Court in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, that none of the email addresses used in defrauding Norwegians was linked to a suspect standing trial.
The witness made this known in his testimony before the court on Friday, while being cross-examined by the lead defence counsel, Oladayo Ogungbe.
Sade was led in evidence by the EFCC counsel, Nwandu Ukoha, to reveal findings of investigation conducted over a petition received from the Norwegian police authorities relating to cybercrimes and alleged fraud.
The defendant, Olatunji Ishola, had previously pleaded not guilty after being arraigned by the commission on 50 counts bordering on cybercrime and fraud.
During the cross-examination, Ogungbe asked the investigator if the defendant’s name appeared on any of the petitions received from the Norwegian police.
In his response, Sade told the court that the defendant’s name did not appear in any of the petitions filed. However, he said the flight ticket extracted from the computer hacked bore the name of the defendant.
Ogungbe then asked if the commission, in the course of investigation, carried out forensic analysis of the various emails sent by the Norwegian authorities to ascertain the authenticity of the alleged fraud.
The investigator stated that the commission relied on the petition for further investigation, noting that EFCC personnel were not part of the Norwegian investigation team.
Ogungbe urged the court to have it on record that the EFCC only acted on hearsay to arrest and arraign his client without concrete evidence linking him to the alleged fraud.
When Ogungbe asked if the defendant’s phone number was linked to any of the identified emails, the investigator told the court that it was only linked to the flight ticket. ,,
