FIRS’ N2bn fraud: How Eteta Ita allegedly transferred funds into personal account – Witness tells court

Ijeoma Matilda, the sixth prosecution witness, PW6, in the ongoing trial of Emmanuella Eteta Ita, Head of Stakeholders Unit of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, has testified that the defendant allegedly diverted funds intended for stakeholders’ assignments to her private school account, Surestart School Ltd.

On Monday, March 18, 2024, the witness testified before Justice Giwa Ogunbanjo of the Federal High Court in Abuja, revealing that Ita took on several stakeholder assignments and that the cash meant for the projects were traceable into her account with the payment story.

She added that the same funds were sent directly into the account of the second defendant, Surestart School Ltd.

According to a statement by the spokesperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Dele Oyewale on Monday, the witness while being cross-examined by the defence counsel, Paul Erokoro, revealed that the defendant during investigations agreed to refund some monies for some reconciliations she could not account for.

According to the statement: “She said in her statement that she will pay back the money, I don’t know where she got the money from, and so far, she has refunded about N17 million, though she told us that she benefited about N5 million from the programme.

“I don’t know the standard practice of sourcing for funds before asking for reimbursement, and it is not within the scope of our investigation. All I know is that she undertook some of the stakeholders’ events, and we saw that those monies that came from FIRS went directly into the account of the second defendant, and the description was that the assignment was not done.”

The statement further quotes: “She said the vendors that were supposed to do the events have given their evidence in court and testified that the receipts didn’t come from them. She further claimed that those receipts were given to her by one Daniel, who was a staff of FIRS.

“We were told he was late and we demanded for the death certificate which was given to us. We requested for his account details and we discovered he was also a beneficiary. We wrote to FIRS, UBA, System Spec, and invited everyone involved in this matter and everything we have here are as a result of our investigations.”

Meanwhile, Justice Ogunbanjo adjourned the matter until March 20, and 21, 2024, for continuation of cross-examination.