A Prosecution Witness, PW6, has revealed how the Head of Stakeholders Unit of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Emmanuella Eteta Ita, diverted money to her private school, Surestart School Ltd.

The witness in the ongoing N2 billion fraud trial of Ita made this disclosure to Justice Giwa Ogunbanjo of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Monday, March 18, 2024, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said in a statement.

According to the witness, Ita who ran Surestart School Ltd, while serving as the Head of a department of FIRS siphoned and diverted large sums of money meant for Stakeholders’ assignments to her private school.

The witness identified as Ijeoma Maltida, while giving her testimony during a cross-examination by defense counsel, Paul Erokoro, revealed that the first defendant, Ita, undertook some Stakeholders’ assignments but the money 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,” Maltida said.

“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.

“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.”

According to Matilda, Ita said the vendors that were supposed to do the events have given their evidence in court and testified that the receipts did not come from them.

The witness added that Ita further claimed that those receipts were given to her by one Daniel, who was a staff of FIRS.

Testifying further, she said they were told Daniel was late and they demanded for his death certificate which was given to them.

Matilda stated that they requested for his account details only for them to discover that he was also a beneficiary.

The Prosecution Witness, PW6 disclosed that they then wrote to FIRS, the United Bank for Africa (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.