Shamsudeen Bala (alias Shamsudeen Mohammed Bala) in court

The fourth witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abeimense Ihcyeon, has told Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of a Federal High Court, Abuja that Shamsudeen Bala Mohammed, son of a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Bala Mohammed, currently the governor of Bauchi State, concealed several assets in money and properties, which were traced to him in course of investigations.

At the resumed on Thursday, November 28, 2019, counsel for the EFCC, Wahab Shittu, tendered the statement of the witness against Shamsudeen as part of his trial for a 15-count charge bordering on money laundering and false declaration of assets.

The witness, an officer of the EFCC and an investigating officer in the matter, had in a statement dated May 17, 2017, revealed that Shamsudeen under interrogation, concealed some of his assets, and failed to fully disclose them in the asset declaration form given to him to fill.

The statement, which was identified by the witness, was thereafter admitted in evidence against Shamsudeen by the court as Exhibit SB24.

Under cross-examination by Chris Uche, SAN, the witness further revealed how intelligence report revealed that Shamsudeen was involved in shady activities, investigation of which necessitated the need for him to declare his assets in the asset declaration form.

She said: “My lord, sometime in 2015, the EFCC received intelligence report on the defendant, the report led to investigations in which we went to the address of the defendant to carry out a search. 

“During the search, various sophisticated electronic gadgets including laptops, phones, cash of Fifty thousand dollars ($50,000), Five hundred and eighty five thousand Naira (N585,000.00)  was discovered in his residence.

“My team leader, Mr Dauda who had earlier testified in court, had requested that the defendant complete an EFCC Asset Declaration Form A in which the defendant failed to disclose choice plots of land, cash domiciled in Standard Chartered Bank in various currencies including Dollars, Pounds and Euro within and out of Nigeria.

“We wrote to the banks requesting the account opening packages, mandate and linked four other companies – Bird Trust Argo Limited, Intertrans Global Logistics Limited, Diakin Telecommunications Limited and Bal-Vac Mining Nigeria Limited to the defendant.”

Justice Dimgba adjourned to January 29 and 30, 2020.