A staff of Guarranty Trust Bank (GT Bank), Okike Obaji, has told a Lagos High Court that the sum of N50,000 was transferred from the account of the late Usifo Ataga to that of Chidinma Adaora between June 1 and 24, 2021.
He also said the bank became aware of the news of the death of its customer, Usifo Ataga, via social media on June 17, 2021.
Obaji and accounts officer with GT Bank appeared before the court on Thursday in the ongoing hearing on the murder of Usifo Ataga, CEO Super TV.
Chidinma Ojukwu and one Adedapo Quadri were arraigned in October last year by the Lagos State Government alongside a third defendant, Chidinma’s sister, Chioma Egbuchu on a nine-count charge bordering on conspiracy, murder, forgery, stealing and being possession of stolen property.
All 3 defendants pleaded not guilty to all charges against them.
At the resumption of the trial, the witness, Okike Obaji, who works with the Victoria Island branch of the bank, produced the statement of account of the deceased between April 1, to August 31, 2021.
It is the second time the bank official is appearing in court. In his first appearance, he was subpoenaed to present some bank documents of the late Mr Ataga. But in this second visit, he was summoned as a witness.
Giving details about how the statement was obtained, Obaji said that “This statement was produced by the bank, Adeola Odeku branch to be precise, using the bank computer which is the process of producing such statements for all its customers”.
He confirmed that the statement was not altered in any way as it was directly generated from the customer account and printed
The bank staff added that the account statement ended on June 30, 2021, as “there were no other transactions on the requested account”.
According to him, the bank became aware of the news of the death of its customer via social media, the bank subsequently blocked the account.
“For the security of the customer’s asset, the bank placed a no debit restriction on the account to ensure that further debit on the account does not occur. Column marked remarks (on the statement) revealed the details of specific transactions,” he said.
While giving an account of the transactions, the witness said that on June 16, the sum of N50,000 was transferred from the deceased to one Mogbo Nkechi, who is the owner of the service apartment where Ataga was killed.
Again, on the same day, the deceased bank account recorded two different debit entries of N101,200.
“The first went to Paycon Nigeria limited and the 2nd went to Capricorn digital, and these two transactions were card originated (ATM),” Obaji added.
Under cross-examination by Onwuka Egwu, a lawyer to the first defendant, Ojukwu, the witness said that the bank did not get any formal notice about the death of their customer.
He also testified that the line manager, Oludotun Akinde, was alerted about the transactions.
The lawyer then asked, “From the 1st of June to 24th, how many transactions are in the name of Chidinma Adaora?”
“The transactions to Chidinma Adaora total N50k. 13th of June – N10,000, 14th of June N25,000, and another N15,000.”
He said the deceased also received multiple credit transfers of N20,000 and it was done using the USSD payment method on a mobile device.
Justice Yetunde Adesanya has adjourned to May 9th to take the testimony of another bank witness from Access Bank.
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