Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court, Abuja has adjourned the case of a former Head of Service, HoS of the Federation, Stephen Oronsaye, who is standing trial for an alleged N2billion pension fraud to May 14, 2018.
Oronsaye along with Osarenkhoe Afe, managing director, Fredrick Hamilton Global Services Limited, are alleged to be complicit in several contract awards during his tenure as HoS.
At the resumed sitting today, May 8, 2018 the first prosecution witness, Rouqayya Ibrahim, an EFCC operative, was cross-examined by Ade Okeaya-Inneh, SAN, lead counsel for Oronsaye, after prosecution counsel, O.A. Atolagbe informed the court that it was done with its evidence-in-chief.
Under cross-examination by Okeaya-Inneh, the witness who has been in the box since June 14, 2016, told the court that the Pension Fraud Team of the EFCC investigated the pension fraud in the Office of the Head of Service, OHSC.
She said: “We investigated payments to companies and individuals, and we observed that if we pick up the statement of account, what would be reflected would be payments for biometric enrolment contracts, consumables, and supplies for different types of narratives, but none of them existed except for Uptrack and Innovative Solutions”.
Ibrahim further added that, during investigations, it was observed that “the powers of the Permanent Secretary who should be the Accounting Officer were taken over by the Head of Service then Oronsaye, through his actions”.
She had during her examination-in-chief, also stated that a number of the contracts awarded were “fictitious contracts”.
“Many of the contracts did not exist, with the exception of one of the biometric contracts, specifically Uptrack and Innovative Solutions, and it was the one that was supposedly done, all other payments investigated, there were no contracts, there were no documentations for them,” she said.