Money laundering: How Bauchi Gov’s son opened accounts with Standard Chartered Bank-Witness

The fifth prosecution witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC), Idoko Akor Idoko, on Wednesday told the court how Shamsudeen Bala Mohammed, the son of the governor of Bauchi State and former FCT minister, Bala Mohammed, allegedly made several cash deposits and withdrawals from his four accounts in Standard Chartered Bank.

Idoko, who is a branch sales and service executive with the Standard Chartered Bank told the court that Shamsudeen Bala opened four personal accounts with the bank, to wit: one Naira account and three domiciliary accounts, with payments made into the accounts in later part of 2014.

He said the accounts had since been closed since April 30, 2019.

In his examination-in-chief, the witness further revealed that the three domiciliary accounts are for dollars, pounds and euros respectively.

Shown the instruments of deposit and withdrawal with statements of said accounts, Idoko confirmed the documents to be letters from EFCC to the bank and vice versa, Bank Verification Number printout, bundle of cash deposit slips, bundle of withdrawal slips, bank account statements and the bank account opening form.

Prosecution counsel, Wahab Shittu, tendered the documents as exhibits and they were admitted by the court.