The trial of a former Governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Ladoja and one of his aides, Waheed Akanbi, for an alleged N4.7 billion fraud, came to a close Tuesday at a Federal High Court in Lagos.
Justice Mohammed Idris wrapped up the trial after Ladoja gave his defence from the witness box.
The judge fixed January 18, 2019, for parties to adopt their written addresses.
Earlier, in his examination-in-chief, Ladoja denied authorising the sale of Oyo State government shares at discounted price.
He said the decision to sell the shares was taken by the State Executive Council upon his return to office on December 11, 2006, following the nullification of his impeachment by the Supreme Court.
The former governor added that proceeds generated from the sale of the shares were deployed towards projects execution.
“On our return to office, we found out that most of the items we had in our budget in 2006 were not touched. We were then looking for money and the second defendant, who was the commissioner for finance, was saddled with the responsibility of looking for the money. He then came up with the idea of selling the shares
“We later called functionaries at the Ministry of Commerce but they told us that the shares had been tied down to the purchase of rice. We then found a way of freeing the shares and at that point, the second defendant made his submissions to the State Executive Council on the sale of the shares and it was approved.
“A memo was later raised by the commissioner for finance and I approved it. I had no dealings with the Portfolio Manager, Fountain Securities Ltd or its Managing Director, Chief Kola Daisi,” he said.
Ladoja explained that he was not privy to the total amount of money that was realized from the sale of shares and that he did not personally benefit from it.
He said: “It is for the officials to follow-up with the revenue, my job stopped at the point of approving the sale of the shares. The revenue generated from the sale of the shares was expended on certain projects”.
