Celestina Appeal, a staff of Zenith Bank, has testified against Oladipupo Adebutu, the gubernatorial candidate of the 2023 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State, during the ongoing trial at the Ogun State High Court.
Adebutu and nine others were arraigned by the federal government over alleged money laundering.
The government accused Adebutu and other defendants of financially influencing voters during the March 18 governorship election election.
At the resumption of the trial yesterday, Celestina Appeal testified that the PDP candidate requested the production of 200,000 prepaid verve cards on February 27, 2023.
The prosecution, led by Rotimi Jacobs from the Federal Government of Nigeria, had presented Appeal as their ninth witness.
It is worth noting that Appeal is the Head of the Department of Card Services at Zenith Bank.
During her testimony, Ms Appeal declared that Adebutu had submitted an application on February 27, 2023, requesting the issuance of 200,000 prepaid cards.
These cards were supposedly meant to be distributed to beneficiaries of his empowerment scheme in honour of his late mother, Dame Caroline Adebutu.
The witness confirmed that the cards were produced after receiving approval from Verve and were subsequently delivered to Adebutu on March 7 and 13, 2023, respectively.
On how she came in contact with Adebutu, she said: “I know the 1st defendant. He has been a customer of the bank since 2009. The 1st defendant requested a card from the bank via a letter on February 27, 2023, to issue 200,000 prepaid cards. The prepaid cards were for beneficiaries in commemoration of the death of his late mother, Dame Caroline Adebutu.
“He gave the bank a graphical design he wanted on the card. When we received the request, the first thing we did was to confirm if the letter was from him. We then confirmed that the purpose was for his late mother, and we did confirm that the mother was late. We later got approval for the card scheme from Verve. When we got the approval, we went ahead to produce the 200,000 cards.”
“When the cards were produced, they were delivered to the bank in batches. The first was received on March 7, 2023. The bank delivered in batches as well. The last batch was delivered on the 13th of March, 2023. Between 7th and 13th March, when the cards were delivered, the account wasn’t funded. It was after we delivered the last batch of cards that the account was funded to take care of the funding of the prepaid cards,
” Vanguard quoted the Zenith bank official saying.
In the meantime, the prosecution attempted to submit Adebutu’s letter of request and his account statement.
However, Adebutu, represented by his counsel, Gordy Uche, SAN, strongly opposed the admission of the documents due to their lack of certification.
The prosecutor argued that private documents do not need to be certified, referencing various legal precedents.
Following arguments from both parties, the presiding Judge, Justice Abiodun Akinyemi, postponed the proceedings until Wednesday, March 20, 2024, for a ruling and further continuation of the trial.
