A prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of the Head of Stakeholders Unit of the Federal Inland Revenue Services, FIRS, Emmanuella Eteta Ita, on Monday, told Justice Giwa Ogunbanjo of the Federal High Court in Abuja, how Ita siphoned and diverted large sums of money meant for stakeholders’ assignments to her private school, Surestart School Ltd.
This was made known on Tuesday by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, in a post on its official X handle.
The Commission alleged that Ita ran Surestart School Ltd while serving as the Head of the Stakeholders Unit of the Federal Inland Revenue Services, FIRS.
The witness, Ijeoma Matilda, while giving her testimony during a cross-examination by defense counsel, Paul Erokoro, revealed that the first defendant, Ita, undertook some stakeholders’ assignments and the funds meant for the projects were traced into her account with the payment narration.
According to the EFCC, investigations showed that the same funds were sent directly into the account of the second defendant, Surestart School Ltd.
“When she came to our office, we took her statement, we were cordial with her, and she was treated very well with utmost respect. While she was with us for reconciliation, she started bringing documents, and she also opted to pay back for some reconciliation she could not account for. 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 program”, she said.
“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”, she added.
According to Matilda, “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.”
After the cross-examination, Justice Ogunbanjo adjourned the matter till March 20 and 21, 2024, for continuation of cross-examination.
Alleged N2bn fraud: How Eteta Ita diverted FIRS funds to her private school – Witness