A Prosecution Witness, PW6, in the ongoing trial of the Head of Stakeholders Unit of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Emmanuella Eteta Ita, has told the Court how Ita siphoned and diverted large sums of money meant for Stakeholders’ assignments to her private school, Surestart School Ltd.
The witness, Ijeoma Matilda, gave her account before Justice Giwa Ogunbanjo of the Federal High Court in Abuja, on Monday, March 18, 2024.
The witness, while giving her testimony during a cross-examination by defense counsel, Paul Erokoro, revealed that Ita, the first defendant in the case, undertook some Stakeholders’ assignments and the funds meant for the projects were traced into her account with the payment narration.
Investigations showed that the same funds were sent directly into the account of the second defendant, Surestart School Ltd.
Ita ran Surestart School Ltd while serving as the Head of Stakeholders Unit of the Federal Inland Revenue Services, FIRS.
Matilda explained that Ita, while she was with them for reconciliation, opted to pay back some amount she could not adequately account for and that so far, she had refunded “about N17 million, though she told us that she benefited about N5million from the program”, she said, adding, “I don’t know the standard practice of sourcing for funds before asking for reimbursement, and it is not within the scope of our investigation.
“All I know is that she undertook some of the stakeholders’ events, and we saw that those monies that came from FIRS went directly into the account of the second defendant, and the description was that the assignment was not done”, she said.
According to Matilda, Ita said, the vendors that were supposed to do the events have given their evidence in court and testified that the receipts didn’t come from them.
She further claimed that those receipts were given to her by one Daniel, who was a staff of FIRS.
Testifying further, Matilda said, “we were told he was late and we demanded for the death certificate which was given to us. We requested for his account details and we discovered he was also a beneficiary. We wrote to FIRS, UBA, System Spec, and invited everyone involved in this matter and everything we have here are as a result of our investigations,” she said.
After the cross-examination, Justice Ogunbanjo adjourned the matter till March 20, and 21, 2024, for continuation of cross-examination.
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