By EDITH NWAPI

A prosecution witness, Salihu Kadir, told an Abuja High Court that Aminu Baba-Kusa, a former General Manager of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), voluntarily wrote his statement and filled all columns himself.

Kadir, gave his testimony in the trial of former National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Col. Sambo Dasuki, charged with 32 counts of criminal breach of trust, dishonest release and receiving various sums of money to the tune of N33.2 billion.

He was accused of misappropriation of security funds in the accounts of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), alongside Baba-Kusa, Acacia Holdings Limited and Reliance Referral Hospital Limited.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned the four defendants afresh on, March 25 in a case that started in 2015.

The EFCC accused Dasuki, among others, of releasing the equivalent of N10billion in foreign currencies from the NSA’s account.

The account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the 2014 presidential primary election of the then ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Dasuki and his co-defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Justice Charles Agbaza had ordered for trial -within-trial to ascertain the voluntariness of Amina Baba-Kusa’s statement.

The order was given following an objection raised by Solomon Umoh SAN, Baba-Kusa counsel on the statement in evidence.

Kadir, the third prosecution witness (PW3), is an Assistant Commander II with the EFCC.

He was taken In evidence by the prosecution counsel, Oluwaleke Atolagbe.

The witness was asked to take a look at Exhibit “TWT A1-A7 ( statements of Baba-Kusa and tell the court what he knows about the recording of the statements

“I supervised the recording of the Exhibit A4, which was dated Nov. 26, 2015. I administered the cautionary words .

When asked to tell the court the circumstance of the recording of the statement, the witness said:” the statement was taken after a search was carried out and executed at the house and office of the second defendant”.

He added that the statement was taken in respect of what was recovered from the house of Baba-Kusa (the second defendant).

Kadir told the court that all the column for station, age and nationality were filled by the 2nd defendant.

The witness said those that were present during the recording of the statement were his team members.

“The room is a general open room and three persons were present in the room when the second defendant’s statement was taken .

Being cross-examined by Umoh, the witness maintained that he administered the caution words before the statement was taken.

When asked if the statement was signed by any other person working with EFCC, he said:” no it was not signed but it was not mandatory for anyone to sign the statement” .

Answering questions on CCTV and recording of statements , the witness said:” there were cameras within the building of the EFCC.

“There was no Camera in the General office where the statement was taken

“There was no recording of the statement but there was a recording of the environment and movements ,” he said..

When asked why no one signed as a witness to the statement , he said he did not sign because, he was not supposed to do that.

After the cross-examination and no reexamination, the prosecution informed the court that he was ready to close his case.

Justice Charles Agbaza then, adjourned until May 15 for Baba-Kusa to open his case (NAN)

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