‘My father handed over money Sen. Sani returned to the EFCC as exhibit’, witness tells court

Mr Mohammed Dauda, a prosecution witness on Wednesday told the Federal High Court Abuja that his father handed over  the money Sen. Shehu Sani, returned to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), as exhibit.The EFCC  charged Sani with two counts bordering on alleged bribery.Dauda, a prosecution witness and son of Alhaji Sani Dauda, Chairman of ASD Motors, who had earlier testified in the matter, made the assertion during cross examination by defence counsel, Mr Abdul Ibrahim, SAN.When asked by Ibrahim if he was part of any discussion where money was to be given to anybody, Dauda told the court that he was there when his father gave money  to the EFCC as exhibit.Dauda also told the court that he was not aware of any case his father had with the EFCC.Earlier, while being led in evidence by the prosecutor, Mr Abba Mohammed, Dauda told the court that the former senator met his father in Nov. 2019.The witness said that Sani told his father that the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the EFCC were rendering some help to him (his father) and that if a token of gratitude was given, it would be appreciated.Dauda further told the court that since the former senator collected money from his father, his father never heard from him again as he neither answered his father’s calls nor called him.The witness added that Sani contacted his father only after his father reported the matter to the EFCC.“My father returned from Saudi Arabia and went to the EFCC and that day, at the EFCC, was the first time Sani called him and said if he knew he was around he would have returned his money.He also told the court that following the instructions of the EFCC, he always set a recorder each time Sani met with his father from then on to record their conversation.The witness further testified that the EFCC asked his father to handover to the commission, the money which Sani returned to him, which was a total of 25, 000 dollars.Another witness, Fatima Umar, a digital forensic analyst with the commission, also giving evidence, said that she extracted data from three phones, one belonging to Sani and the others belonging to the complainant.She, however, said that Sani was not present when the data was being extracted.Umar added that the request to extract data from the phones was accompanied by signed consent forms.The prosecutor also tendered some documents through Umar which were admitted and marked as exhibit 1 to 24.The trial judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo, adjourned the matter until July 9 for continuation of trial.