SAN FRANCISCO, June 27, (THEWILL) – Geoffrey Teme, a defence witness for Joshua Dariye, a former Governor of Plateau State, told a Federal Capital Territory High Court that the Plateau State Ecological Fund was provided to fund the election campaign of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003.
Teme, who was the Majority Leader in the Plateau House of Assembly from 2003 to 2006, said this during cross examination, on Monday, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN).
He said the information was provided by former Plateau State Governor, Joshua Dariye, to the House Committee set up to investigate the petition filed against the governor by the EFCC.
He added that the then Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, invited all 24 members of the House to the National Assembly in 2004.
“We were asked to pass a vote of no-confidence on Dariye. There was a conflict as we did not see anything in the law for us to pass a vote of no-confidence against him,” he revealed.
“His reason was that there was inefficiency on the part of the governor,” the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted the witness as saying to the court on Monday.
He also told the court that upon their arrival in the state, when they were still deciding on what to do, the whole party structure was dissolved.
“A state of emergency was declared and an interim government was formed,’’ he added.
Teme, who was charged along with Dariye and prosecuted in Lagos with other members of the House, was later discharged.
Story by David OPutah
