A former Principal Secretary, Government House Administration, Benue State, Mr. Eugene Orvihi-Ivase, told the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday, that the sum of N450m allegedly signed for in his office’s name without his knowledge was handed over to the ex-governor of the state, Mr. Gabriel Suswam.
He said although he raised the memo for the money to offset outstanding overheads for the Government House sometimes in 2015, he never knew the money had been disbursed by the Benue State’s Ministry of Finance until some weeks after he had been re-deployed to the state’s Office of the Head of Service in June 2015.
The witness, who now works with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, was testifying as the first prosecution witness in the trial of Suswam and two others on 32 counts of fraud and money laundering involving alleged diversion of a total sum of N9.79bn meant for Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme in the state.
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