Hayatudeen Ahmed, an official of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has told a high court that Ahmed Idris, the suspended accountant-general of the federation, has voluntarily returned $899,900 cash.
According to TheNation, the EFCC official said this on Wednesday while appearing as a witness during the proceedings at the high court in the federal capital territory (FCT).
Ahmed, who testified as the first prosecution witness, was led in evidence by Rotimi Jacobs, counsel to the EFCC.
The witness said the returned cash was part of the public funds allegedly diverted by Idris.
Recall that Idris was arrested in May in Kano after he failed to respond to invitations by the EFCC to answer questions over the allegation of N80 billion fraud.
Hours later, Idris was suspended, and in July, he was arraigned on a 14-count charge alongside Godfrey Olusegun Akindele, Mohammed Kudu Usman, and a firm — Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited.
The defendants were granted bail in liberal terms.
“After the petition was assigned to our team, investigation commenced. We wrote to banks, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and other government agencies,” Ahmed said.
“From analysis of bank documents received, we discovered that a Baita Kura of B.I. Kura Enterprises, a bureau de change operator, made several deposits of money amounting to N280 million between 2019 and 2021 into the account of the fourth defendant – Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Ltd.
“Based on this finding, Baita was invited. He admitted in his statement that those monies that he paid into the first defendant’s (Idris’) account, were given to him by the first defendant.
“We discovered that the payments made were on the instruction of the first defendant. We also discovered from other bank statements analysis that a certain architect Mustapha Muktar of Marcs and Construction Ltd received various sums from Baita Kura, amounting to about N866 million.
“Based on this, we invited architect Mustapha, who gave statement and explained that the money he received from Baita were on the instruction of the first defendant.”