The trial of Muazu Babangida Aliyu, a former Niger State Governor, and two others, Tanko Beji and Umar Nasko, continued before Justice Mikail Aliyu of the Niger State High Court on Thursday.

During the trial, the eleventh prosecution witness, Bala Muhammad, presented his evidence-in-chief.

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In 2017, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned the ex-governor and Umar Nasko, the 2015 governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Niger State, before Justice Aliyu Maiyaki of the Federal High Court sitting in Minna over N3 billion fraud.

Nasko, who served as Chief of Staff and Commissioner for Environment under Aliyu’s administration between 2007 and 2015, allegedly diverted N520 million from the Niger State Government Security Account domiciled in Zenith Bank in 2011. Within the same period, he also allegedly diverted a separate N1.7 billion from the same account.

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Together, Aliyu and Nasko allegedly diverted about N1.09 billion, which was from the benefits of the 16 percent shares of Niger State in the North South Power Company Ltd., in contravention of sections 97 and 312 of the Penal Code.

The trio pleaded not guilty to the amended charges on February 14, 2019, when they were re-arraigned. However, a witness, Mohammed Bala, narrated how investigations revealed suspicious transfers from the state’s federation allocation account to private accounts.

Bala, an officer of the EFCC, told the court that in the course of investigations, the third defendant was invited for interrogation.

“We confronted him with the allegations, more especially the Ecological Fund issue, and he admitted that ‘yes’, there was the issue of Eco Fund which was received from the office of the Accountant General of the Federation in April 2014,” he stated.

“At that time, he was Commissioner of Environment, and he admitted to receiving N800 million and that he benefited the sum of N50 million out of the N800 million.”