Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of the Special Offences Court sitting at Ikeja, Lagos State, has admitted more evidence against an alleged fake Army General, Bolarinwa Abiodun.
Abiodun was charged before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on 13 counts bordering on obtaining money by false pretences, forgery of documents and possession of documents containing false pretences involving alleged N266,500,000 fraud.
He was first arraigned on April 11, 2022.
The investigating officer, Buhari Kobi, while being led in evidence by the prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, on Monday, said the EFCC received the petition from one Chief Abdullah Tony in November 2021 and the team immediately swung into action by carrying out surveillance activities, which led to the arrest of the defendant on January 12, 2022.
“In the course of the search, several items were recovered from his house, including six pump-action guns, three cartridge bullets, a swagger stick, a military ID card with the passport photo of the defendant and his name as General Bolarinwa and several forged documents were recovered from him with several photographs of him in military uniform,” he added.
Kobi further told the court that four vehicles were also recovered from his house, including a Hilux van, one Range Rover, one LandCruiser, and one other vehicle with OBJ1 as its number plate.
He said the investigating team wrote to relevant authorities, including the State House and defence headquarters to ascertain the genuineness of the documents and letters of investigation activities were also written to First Bank of Nigeria Plc, where the account of the defendant was domiciled, as well as Zenith Bank and UBA, where the accounts of his victim were domiciled.
He also identified the letter of investigation activities written to the Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, the State House, as well as their responses.
The prosecution thereafter sought to tender them in evidence against the defendant; no objections were raised by the defence counsel, Kayode Lawal.
Justice Taiwo admitted them as exhibits.
The search warrant used to execute the search on the defendant’s house was also admitted in evidence as Exhibit N.
Kobi further testified that the responses from the CDS, COAS and Chief of Staff, indicated that the said letter of appointment of the defendant as COAS “did not emanate from the Presidency, same with the certificate of confirmation and purported inauguration invitation card.”
Justice Taiwo adjourned the matter till June 2 and 3, 2022, for continuation of trial.