N211.3M Scam: More Witnesses Testify Against Gbenga Daniel

The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) on Friday December
5, 2014 presented another set of witnesses in
the trial of a former Governor of Ogun
State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel. Daniel is
being prosecuted on a 38-count charge of
stealing public funds, bribery, fraudulent
conversion of public property and false
declaration of assets to the tune of
N211.3million At the last adjourned date
Thursday December 4, 2014, prosecuting
counsel, Mr Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, had
presented a witness, Mr AJibola kaka, who
legal representative of one Mr Adeniyi
Adenuga whose land was appropriated by the
former governor.

In his testimony, Kaka explained to the court how
his client, Adenuga called him, sometime in 2004 to
tell him that he received a letter from the Bureau
of Lands and Survey, inviting him for a meeting
with the Surveyor General.

The outcome of the meeting was that, the
government wanted to use his client's land in
Government Reservation Area, GRA, Sagamu
for public purpose and that the government will
relocate his client to a nearby land.
"My client later called to tell me that he was
satisfied with the land re-allocated to him, but much
later, he told me that he was not given a letter of
allocation. At that instant, I advised him to fence
the land and also complained to the Bureau which
he did. However, after the fence was constructed,
some people came into the land and started erecting
a structure, a twin duplex apartment.
“At that point when my client told me of the
development, I advised him to go and put a gate
but he was stopped by the same people constructing
the apartment. Eventually, some people from the
press met me, requesting for an interview regarding
the property and I told them what I knew about
it", he said.
Consequently, Kaka said his client called him again,
telling him that he was invited by the Bureau
regarding the interview he granted to the press and
asked Kaka to represent him in the meeting. At the
meeting, Kaka said that a fresh offer of another land
was made to his client. The offer was accepted but
compensation was demanded for the fence already
constructed on the initial land allocated to
Adenuga.
"Mr Akogunu and I agreed on a payment of N2,
500,000 (Two Million, Five Hundred Thousand
Naira Only) as compensation to my client which
was paid to me in cash", Kaka said.
When asked by Jacobs  whether the initial land
was used for public purpose as stated by the
Bureau , Kaka said he discovered that the land
was used to build a personal house for the former
governor .
The defense counsel , Professor Taiwo Osopitan,
SAN, while cross examining the witness asked
him, whether he was instructed by his client to come
and give a testimony. Jacob quickly came in and
stressed that his testimony was proper and legal.
Justice Olarenwaju upheld the prosecution's
argument, saying that the witness is a witness of the
state. Justice Olarenwaju discharged the witness
and Mrs Bolanle Ayunuga was invited by Jacob
as his second witness.
Mrs Ayunuga, former Head, Revenue Section of
the Bureau of Lands and Survey, in her testimony,
disclosed that she was in charge of the preparation
of weekly and monthly revenue report and
supervision of revenue staff.
She said sometime in 2012, operatives of the
EFCC came to her office, requesting for evidence
of payment in respect of Mr and Mrs G. O
Daniel, Aron Nigeria Limited, Gateway
Foundation and others she could not remember.
She said after going through their record, she could
only find evidence of registration payment and
Administrative charges but the evidence of premium
capital contribution and survey were not there.
Justice Olarenwaju, after listening to all the
testimonies, adjourned proceedings to Friday
December 5, 2014.
At the resumed hearing today, Jacobs presented
two more witnesses: Christopher Olusanjo Oyebade
and Meojuola Oladimeji Baderinwa, who work
with the Bureau of Land and Survey, Abeokuta
and Sagamu Zonal Office respectively.
The first witness, Oyebade, a retired Assistant
Surveyor General, was the Principal Technical
Officer in Abeokuta Zonal Office at the time the
alleged offence was committed.. He explained to the
court that sometime in March 2004 the then
Surveyor General sent him on assignment  to
Sagamu Zonal office, where he carried out survey
on a parcel of land at Sagamu GRA as instructed.
Exhibit 13 was shown to the witness and he
identified it as the 1.6 hectares of land he was asked
to survey but denied any knowledge of the original
owner of the land when asked by Jacobs.
Asked whether there was any building on the land
at the time he carried out the survey, the witness
said there was a dual perimeter fence on the
property and beacons at the boundaries which
showed that a survey had already been executed on
the land.
The witness also denied receiving any payment in
respect of the survey. The second prosecution
witness, Baderinwa who was the Zonal Surveyor
in the Sagamu office of the Bureau,  from 2009 to
2012, while explaining what transpired in 2012,
disclosed that sometime in 2012 he was accompanied
by operatives of EFCC to Sagamu for inspection
and identification of some property in Sagamu
GRA but could not remember their exact location.
He further revealed that after they identified the
land, EFCC operatives requested for composite
plan of the property. “The composite plan comprise
of a number of plots. I later subdivided the contents
of the plots and revealed the plots as they were
before being merged to become one”, he told the
court . The witness was shown the Sagamu
Master Plan as well as the composite plan of the
lands for identification. They were eventually
tendered in evidence by the prosecution and marked
as exhibit 57 and 58 respectively.
Mr Baderinwa further told the court that exhibit
58 shows that Plots 1a, 1b, 1c were merged together
with plot 12, NEPA quarters and another piece of
land that was supposed to be a road going by the
master plan, to become one Plot.
When asked by the prosecuting counsel if it is
normal practice in his profession to conduct a
survey on a road, he answered, NO! He also
confirmed that the content of exhibit 58 (The
composite plan) distorted the master plan of
Sagamu.
During cross examination, the Defense counsel
asked the witness if he knew about the revised
version of the Ogun State master plan, to which he
answered, no. The defense counsel then requested
the court for adjournment in order to produce the
revised version of the master plan.
Justice Olrenwaju adjourned the case to
16th January, 4th and 5th February 2015 for
continuation of trial.