Alleged P&ID scam: Witness gives transaction details in Briton’s account.

Akinwande Adewale Akinseye, an Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC)’s witness, on Monday, gave
details about series of transactions in the bank account of
James Nolan, the British national and a director in the Process
and Industrial Development (P&ID) Nigeria Ltd.
Akinseye spoke before Justice Okon Abang during a cross-
examination in the ongoing trial of Nolan at the Federal High
Court, Abuja.
Akinseye, who is the first prosecution witness (PW1), admitted
that he tendered Exhibit C which contained the statements of
account to the EFCC.
“There is a credit of N1 million from ICIL Limited on Aug. 16,
2006. It is a clearing deposit.
“It means the clearing cheque of N1m was paid into the
account of P&ID Nigeria Ltd from ICIL Ltd,,” he said.
Akinseye, who is a commercial bank staff, said though he did
not know the nature of the transaction or the origin of the
funds, “I could only identify the entry as detailed in the
account.”
He said the second entry on the account was a cash
withdrawal of N500, 000 as detailed in the account statement
by Neil C. Hitchcock which took place on Aug. 31, 2006.
He said Hitchcock is signatory to the account of P&ID Nigeria
Ltd.
“The next entry was the account maintenance charge applied
on the cash withdrawals of N500, 000. Its value is N2, 500.
The bank deducted the charge for itself. Although the bank
takes account maintenance charge I am uncertain if the back
takes the entire charge.
“It is a charge and it is taxable,” he said.
According to him, when it is taxed, it is in form of a Value
Added Tax paid by the bank and the bank remits the tax.
“For the N500, 000 withdrawal, the VAT was N125 and the
date of transmission is 31st of August, 2006.
“The next entry on the statement of account is a transfer
credit of N13, 100, 000 from Trista Nigerian Limited, Abuja to
P&ID Nigeria Ltd on 6th of September, 2006,” he said.
Akinseye, who said it was detailed transfers between
customers, said it must have emanated from his bank.
He explained that though “there is a limit to an information an
account statement can provide, transfers between accounts is
normally referred to as transfers between accounts domicile in
the bank.”
He said the information on the domicile bank of the sender of
the fund could be ascertained by the bank and could also be
ascertained from another means other than the statement.
“The next entry was a bank withdrawal of N1.5 million by Neil
C. Hitchcock on the 8th of September, 2006.
“The amount withdrawn from the account is a normal due
process,” he said.
The witness said the date of the next transaction was Sept. 8,
2006.
“It was a charge of N3, 500 being the cost of legal search
carried out on the account.
“The search was carried out to verify the directors and other
information as registered at C.A.C. against the C.A.C.
document submitted to the bank for account opening,” he
said.
He said while he was not managing the account at a time, “I
can establish that the information from the search report was
in order with the account opening document.”
He gave the next entry as a Telex charge of N1000 taken on
Sept. 8, 2006.
According to him, the Telex charge denotes international
transfer of fund from the account.
“From the statement of the dollar account, the international
transfer of fund took place on Sept. 8, 2006,” he said.
Akinseye gave the dollar account as 0023975564, the naira
account as 0023975557.
He, said the account number: 0131467029. also belonged to
the P&ID Nigeria Limited.
“100 thousand dollars was transferred from out of account of
P&ID Nig Ltd,” he said, adding that the Telex charge of N1000
was deducted from the naira account based on the agreement
with the customer.
“The Telex charge of N1000 can be taken from the naira
account where the customers prefer it to be taken.
“The Telex charge goes straight to private company and could
be taken in any currency on the agreed amount.
“And it is in accordance with bank policy and did not
contravene any regulatory guideline,” he said.
Akinseye, who stated that the transaction would not have been
carried out if the requests were not in line with the bank
processes, said: “a bank can carry out transaction that may
still be reported as suspicious transactions.”
Justice Abang adjourned the case until Dec 17 for trial
continuation.