The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has fixed March 5 for the viewing of the CCTV clips of the events that took place on March 26, 2015, when a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Dele Belgore, visited a Fidelity Bank Branch in Ilorin, Kwara State.
The application to view the CCTV clip was made on Thursday by Belgore’s lawyer and SAN, Mr Ebun Sofunde.
Sofunde applied that the CCTV clip be viewed as part of Belgore’s defence in his trial on allegations of laundering N450 million.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting Belgore, alongside a former Minister of National Planning, Professor Abubakar Sulaiman, for allegedly laundering the money in the build-up to the 2015 general elections.
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The anti-graft agency claimed that the N450m was part of a larger sum of $115.01m, which a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, allegedly doled out to influence the outcome of the polls.
Belgore, while testifying in his own defence, told the court that though he visited Fidelity Bank alongside Suleiman on March 26, 2015, on the invitation of the bank manager, they only signed for the N450m but did not take it away.
His counsel, Sofunde tendered in evidence a flash drive containing the CCTV clip of what transpired in the bank’s premises during the visit.
Responding to questions from Sofunde, Belgore reiterated that his only connection with the N450m was in his capacity as the Kwara State Coordinator of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election campaign in 2015.
Belgore, while reading from the statements he made to the EFCC, said after leaving the bank, he called a meeting of all the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stakeholders in Ilorin and informed them about the money.
He said the sharing formula was determined at the meeting after which he forwarded a list of beneficiaries to Fidelity Bank for them to be paid by the bank.
Justice Rilwan Aikawa, thereafter, admitted the flash drive in evidence, after the prosecuting counsel, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, said he would reserve for final address, his objection on the admissibility of the flash drive.
The trial judge adjourned further proceedings till March 5.
In the charges against them, the EFCC insisted that Belgore and Suleiman received N450m from Diezani and laundered same.
The anti-graft agency said they ought to have “reasonably known” that the N450m was part of proceeds of unlawful activities, adding that they handled the money without going through any financial institution, contrary to the provisions of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.
Belgore and Suleiman, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
