Alleged P&ID scam: Witness gives transaction details in Briton’s account

Akinwande Adewale Akinseye, an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)’s witness, on Monday, gave details about series of transactions in the bank account of James Nolan, the British national and a director in the Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) Nigeria Ltd.

Akinseye spoke before Justice Okon Abang during a cross-examination in the ongoing trial of Nolan at the Federal High Court, Abuja.

Akinseye, who is the first prosecution witness (PW1), admitted that he tendered Exhibit C which contained the statements of account to the EFCC.

“There is a credit of N1 million from ICIL Limited on Aug. 16, 2006. It is a clearing deposit.

“It means the clearing cheque of N1m was paid into the account of P&ID Nigeria Ltd from ICIL Ltd,,” he said.

Akinseye, who is a commercial bank staff, said though he did not know the nature of the transaction or the origin of the funds, “I could only identify the entry as detailed in the account.”

He said the second entry on the account was a cash withdrawal of N500, 000 as detailed in the account statement by Neil C. Hitchcock which took place on Aug. 31, 2006.

He said Hitchcock is signatory to the account of P&ID Nigeria Ltd.

“The next entry was the account maintenance charge applied on the cash withdrawals of N500, 000. Its value is N2, 500.

The bank deducted the charge for itself. Although the bank takes account maintenance charge but I am uncertain if the back takes the entire charge.

“It is a charge and it is taxable,” he said.

According to him, when it is taxed, it is in form of a Value Added Tax paid by the bank and the bank remits the tax.

“For the N500, 000 withdrawal, the VAT was N125 and the date of transmission is 31st of August, 2006.

“The next entry on the statement of account is a transfer credit of N13, 100, 000 from Trista Nigerian Limited, Abuja to P&ID Nigeria Ltd on 6th of September, 2006,” he said.

Akinseye, who said it was detailed transfers between customers, said it must have emanated from his bank.

He explained that though “there is a limit to an information an account statement can provide, transfers between accounts is normally referred to as transfers between accounts domicile in the bank.”

He said the information on the domicile bank of the sender of the fund could be ascertained by the bank and could also be ascertain from another means other than the statement.

“The next entry was a bank withdrawal of N1.5 million by Neil C. Hitchcock on the 8th of September, 2006.

“The amount withdrawn from the account is a normal due process,” he said.

The witness said the date of the next transaction was Sept. 8, 2006.

“It was a charge of N3, 500 being the cost of legal search carried out on the account.

“The search was carried out to verify the directors and other information as registered at C.A.C. against the the C.A.C. document submitted to the bank for account opening,” he said.

He said while he was not managing the account at a time, “I can establish that the information from the search report was in order with the account opening document.”

He gave the next entry as a Telex charge of N1000 taken on Sept. 8, 2006.

According to him, the Telex charge denotes international transfer of fund from the account.

“From the statement of the dollar account, the international transfer of fund took place on Sept. 8, 2006,” he said.

Akinseye gave the dollar account as 0023975564, the naira account as 0023975557.

He,said the account number: 0131467029.also belonged to the P&ID Nigeria Limited.

“100 thousand dollars was transfer from out of account of P&ID Nig Ltd,” he said, adding that the Telex charge of N1000 was deducted was deducted from the naira account based on the agreement with the customer.

“The Telex charge of N1000 can be taken from the naira account where the customers prefer it to be taken.

“The Telex charge goes straight to private company and could be taken in any currency on the agreed amount.

“And it is in accordance with bank policy and did not contravene any regulatory guideline,” he said.

Akinseye, who stated that the transaction would not have been carried out if the requests were not in line with the bank processes, said “a bank can carried out transaction that may still be reported as suspicious transactions.”

Justice Abang adjourned the case until Dec 17 for trial continuation.