$330,000 fraud: Ex registrar fails polygraph Test

Mohammed Umar, another polygraph expert with Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday explained how a former court registrar, Oluronke Rosolu, failed the polygraph examination when investigation was conducted to ascertain her culpability in the $330,000 scam of former Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi.

Rosulu, a former Registrar with Justice Olubunmi Oyewole is facing a two-count charge of conspiracy to obtain money by false pretence and obtaining money by false pretence beforeaLagosStateHighCourtinIkeja. She was also accused of aiding a one- time Lagos socialite, Fred Ajudua, to defraud Bamaiyi of $330,000.

EFCC said the fraud took place while Bamaiyi and Ajudua were being remanded at Kirikiri Maximum Prison for separate criminal charges between November 2004 and June 2005.

The anti-graft agency also alleged that Ajudua obtained the money from Bamaiyi by claiming that it represented the professional fees charged by Chief Afe Babalola to handle his case. He is also alleged to have claimed that the money would help to facilitate Bamaiyi’s release from prison.

But at the resumption of proceeding yesterday, the witness who was led in evidence by the EFCC counsel, Mr. Seidu Atteh, said he studied the video recording of the polygraph examination and other documents and found out that the examinee was being deceptive during the polygraph examination.

Umar, a quality control operative attached to the Polygraph Unit of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abuja, made the claim while testifying before the presiding judge, Justice Lateef Lawal- Akapo.

The prosecution witness who has a diploma in psychophysiological detection of deception, also a member of the American Polygraph Association, said that Rosolu’s polygraph examination was not the first of its kind conducted in the country by his team.

While being cross-examined by the defence counsel, Mr Bamidele Ogundele, the witness said his team did not carry out a polygraph test on Lt. Gen Ishaya Bamaiyi and a prison official ACP Abdullahi Garba to determine if they were lying against the defendant.

“Deception is a polygraph terminology where the examinee is not being truthful during the examination,” the EFCC operative said.

The matter was adjourned till June 23, 2015.