The trial of a British national, James Nolan before Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja continued on Wednesday with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission presenting its first witness against the defendant.
Nolan and Adam Quinn (at large), who are directors in Goidel Resources Limited, a Designated Non-Financial Institution and ICIL Limited are facing a 16-count money laundering charge before Justice Abang in relation to the $9.6billion Process and Industrial Development gas processing and utilization contract scam.
The EFCC had already secured the liquidation of the company and the conviction of some of its management staff.
During Wednesday’s proceedings, prosecution counsel E. Iheanacho made available two prosecution witnesses, but only one was able to testify and was cross-examined.
The witness, Adewale Agunbiade, an account officer with Guarantee Trust Bank, Abuja, who handled the opening of the accounts for the companies, told the court that he knew the defendant and was familiar with the names of Goidel Resources Ltd and ICIL Ltd.
Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, the witness said, ”We received a request to provide the account opening document from the EFCC and the statement of account in August 2019.
”We had the account opening document retrieved from our archives and the statements were generated. We forwarded it to our compliance team to deliver to the EFCC.”
The EFCC in a statement said the documents were admitted in evidence by the court and marked Exhibit A and Exhibit B1 to B84.
The witness further disclosed that Nolan and one Isaac Ebubiogu are signatories to the account and that either of them could authorize the transaction on the account.
Giving insight into financial transactions on the account, he told the court that $125,000 was credited to the account of Goidel Resources Ltd. by Nolan on February 1, 2016 through account number 0154696732, adding that on February 13, 2018, there was a transfer of $120,000 from LIR Resources Nigeria Ltd. to Goidel Resources.
The witness further disclosed that on December 15, 2015, there was a transfer of N50million from Box Design Ltd to Goidel Resources Ltd via the account number 0151728629, noting that on November 6, 2015, a transfer of N10m came again from Box Design to Goidel Resources.
After the cross-examination of the witness by the defence counsel, Paul Erokoro, (SAN), Abang adjourned the matter till Thursday for the continuation of trial.
