ATUCHE: WITNESS SAYS NO ILLEGAL MONEY TRANSFER

By ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH & ONOZURE DANIA
LAGOS-An Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, investigator, Mr David Nkpe,  yesterday, told an Ikeja High Court, Lagos, that they did not recover record or application forms for preferential allotment or disbursement during their investigation into allegations of stealing N27.5 billion belonging to Bank PHB, now Keystone Bank, against former managing director of the bank, Mr Francis Atuche.

Nkpe,  a field detective in Bank Fraud Investigative Department of EFCC,  said there was indeed, no foreign investments in all the transactions they investigated.

Atuche, alongside his wife, Elizabeth, and a former Chief Financial Officer of BankPHB, Ugo Anyanwu, are standing trial  before Justice Latifa Okunnu.

During a cross-examination by Atuche's counsel, Mr. Anthony Idigbe, SAN, the witness said the information they got was from statements from the Managing Director of Futureview Financial Services Limited, Mrs Elizabeth Ebi.

He said in their investigations, the company involved were Futureview, Extra oil and Trajec, which were presided over by some other individuals.

Nkpe under-cross examination, said his team never investigated the terms and conditions of the public offer as it was irrelevant to their investigation.

On the deferral policy of the bank, the witness confirmed that during investigations, they indeed discovered that the bank had a deferral policy, which also needed a deferral form, adding that there was no specific form designed for same, as it was usually done officially.