A
principal witness of the EFCC and an official of the Zenith Bank has
confessed in court in Abuja of how a whopping $40 million was
transferred from Dasuki into the account of a company owned by a cousin
of Goodluck Jonathan.
GEJ, Dasuki & Azibaola
An official of Zenith Bank has told a Federal high Court in Abuja
that $40 million was transferred from the office of the National
Security Adviser (NSA) into the account of a company owned by a cousin
of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Azibaola Roberts, and his wife.
Olabode Farinola, a compliance officer with the bank, is a
principal witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC,
in the ongoing trial of Mr. Roberts and his wife, Stella.
He told the court presided over by Justice Nnamdi Dimgba that the
money was transferred to OnePlus Holdings LTD from the office of the NSA
according to bank description.
Under cross-examination by counsel to Mr. Roberts, Chris Uche Mr.
Farinola also admitted that the NSA never complained to Zenith Bank that
the $40 million was wrongly transferred.
“I’m not aware of the purpose of the inflow or how it was
disbursed but we didn’t receive any letter from the NSA that the money
was wrongly transferred,” Mr. Farinola said.
Mr. Roberts and his wife are facing a seven-count charge brought against them by the EFCC.
They were accused of diverting $40 million meant for the supply of
tactical communication kits for Nigeria’s Special Forces. The funds were
allegedly transferred from the account of the Office of the NSA
domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
During a previous cross examination, Ibrahim Mahe, another
principal witness had told the court that only the former NSA, Sambo
Dasuki, could explain why OnePlus Holdings Limited got a $40 million
pipeline security contract.
Mr. Mahe, who recently retired as Permanent Secretary, Special
Services Operations (SSO) in the NSA’s office, told the court that he
paid Oneplus $40 million out of the $600 million special security fund
sourced from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
He however failed to tell the court the names of the companies that
benefited from the remaining $560 million of the special security fund.
Mr. Farinola, while being led in evidence by Sylvanus Tahir, the
prosecution counsel, informed the court that $39, 999, 985 was received
by the accused persons on September 10, 2014.
The counsel, Mr. Tahir, informed the court that more witnesses
would be presented at the next hearing as some of them are not currently
in the country.
The case was adjourned by Justice Dimgba to November 18 for continuation of trial and cross examination.
Source: Premium Times
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