Alleged bribery: My father handed $25,000 Sani returned to EFCC – witness

By Vivian Okejeme Abuja

A prosecution witness Mohammed Dauda, yesterday informed the court that his father, Alhaji Sani Dauda, Chairman of ASD Motors, handed the sum of $25,000, Senator Shehu Sani returned to EFCC as exhibit.
Senator Sani is answering a two count charge of alleged bribery levelled against him by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) before Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Continuing in his cross examination by the defence counsel, Mr Abdul Ibrahim, SAN, yesterday, Dauda told the court that he was there when his father gave money to the EFCC as an exhibit.
Dauda also told the court that he was not aware of any case his father had with the anti-graft agency.
While being led in Evidence in Chief, earlier by the prosecution counsel, Mr Abba Mohammed, Dauda told the court that the former senator met his father in Nov. 2019.
According to him, Sani told his father that the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the EFCC were rendering some help to him (his father) and that if a token of gratitude was given, it would be appreciated.
“Since the former senator collected money from my father, my father never heard from him again as he neither answered his father’s calls nor called him.
“The witness added that Sani contacted his father only after his father reported the matter to the EFCC.
“My father returned from Saudi Arabia and went to the EFCC and that day, at the EFCC, was the first time Sani called him and said if he knew he was around he would have returned his money.”
Testifying further, Dauda told the court that following the instructions of the EFCC, he always set a recorder each time Sani met with his father from then on to record their conversation.
He added that the EFCC asked his father to hand over the commission, the money which Sani returned to him, which was a total of $25, 000 dollars.
Also yesterday, Fatima Umar, another witness and a digital forensic analyst with the prosecution agency, also gave evidence against Sani.
Led in evidence in chief, Umar said she extracted data from three phones, one belonging to Sani and the others belonging to the complainant.
However, she noted that Sani was not present when the data was being extracted, saying however that the request to extract data from the phones was accompanied by signed consent forms.
At the trial, the prosecutor also tendered some documents through Umar which were admitted and marked as exhibit 1-2.
The matter has been adjourned till July 9 for continuation of trial.