Abubakar Umar, the fourth prosecution witness, PW4, in the ongoing trial of Gabriel Suswam, a former governor of Benue State, on February 4, 2020, told Justice Okon Abang of a Federal High Court, Abuja, that some persons from the side of Suswam pressured and threatened to kill him and his family if he failed to lie while testifying before Justice A.R. Mohammed of a Federal High Court.
It will be recalled that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, was previously prosecuting Suswam, now a Senator and his former Commissioner of Finance, Okolobia Okpanach before Justice Mohammed for allegedly diverting proceeds from the sale of shares owned by the Benue State government.
In the course of the trial, Umar, while being examined by counsel for the EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, had began to give contradictory evidence different from what he had stated in his statement, and testimonies he had made earlier in court.
Umar had previously told Justice Mohammed that he handed over $15.8 million to Suswam at his residence in Maitama, Abuja, but later changed his testimony that he only took the money to the Government House in Benue, and that he never knew if the money was given to Suswam. The action had prompted Jacobs to inform the court of his intention to declare him a “hostile witness”.
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