The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday informed a Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, presided over by Justice Daniel Osiagor, that a sum to the tune of N4.6 billion, allegedly transferred into a Joint Trust account, was used to finance the Presidential Campaign of former Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan.
This revelation was made before the judge by the Commission through its witness and an investigative officer with the anti-graft agency while testifying in the trial of former Minister of Finance, Senator Nenadi Usman, former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, and two others over alleged money laundering and other fraud-related offences.
In being cross-examined by Ferdinand Orbih (SAN), counsel to the first Defendant (Nenadi Usman), the witness posited that his team, from the Special Task Force of the EFCC, never invited the former President Jonathan throughout their investigation.
The witness equally admitted that the first Defendant, Nenadi Usman, was the Director of Finance, of President Goodluck Jonathan’s Campaign Organisation, while the second Defendant, Fani-Kayode, was the Director of Media and Publicity of the organisation.
As to the reason why President Jonathan was not invited to confirm or deny if the money paid into the Joint Trust account was expended for his campaign or not, Shuaibu said, “no, we did not invite him, since the President was not the one that expended the money.”
Also asked as to why those that transferred money into the Joint Trust account were arrested and prosecuted, the witness said, “To the best of my knowledge, I do not know whether those that transferred money into the Joint Trust account were charged to court or not. I am not a lawyer, and would not know why they have not been charged before the court.”
Shuaibu further made public that the said sum was paid from the State House to the NEA Account before it was transferred into the Joint Trust account.
He insisted that the money was paid by the Permanent Secretary, State House, Engineer Nebolisa Emodi and that he was invited for Interrogation by his team, but not charged to court.
The investigative officer hinted that during his investigation, he did not investigate the Defendants for stealing; hence he would not know if they stole the money or not.
This made Orbih (SAN), counsel to the 2nd Defendant confront the witness with a Certified True Copy of Proceedings before Justice Rilwanu Aikawa, who was handling the case before he was transferred out of Lagos, where the witness stated that the money was stolen.
“I did not investigate any stolen money, and I never used the word stolen, what I said was that the money was fraudulently transferred”, the witness insisted.
Fani-Kayode is being tried alongside a former Minister of State for Finance, Nenadi Usman, a former Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Yusuf Danjuma, and a company, Jointrust Dimensions Nigeria Ltd.
It would be recalled that the EFCC had earlier initiated a 17-count charge of N4.6 billion money laundering against the defendants before the former trial judge, Justice Mohammed Aikawa.
But they had pleaded not guilty to the counts and were granted bail.
Proceedings had started before Justice Aikawa and witnesses were led in evidence before the trial judge was transferred out of the Lagos Division of the court.
The case was subsequently assigned to a new trial judge, Justice Daniel Osaigor, and the defendants had to start the case from the beginning (de novo).
According to the charge, the Defendants were accused to have committed the offences between January and March 2015 in Lagos.
The anti-graft agency had also accused the Defendants of having, at various times, unlawfully retained over N4.6 billion, which they reasonably ought to have known formed part of the proceeds of unlawful acts of stealing and corruption.
Specifically, in counts 15 to 17, Fani-Kayode and one Olubode Oke, who is said to be at large, were alleged to have made cash payments of about N30 million to one Paste Poster Co (PPC) of No 125 Lewis St., Lagos.
The said payments were alleged to have been made in excess of amounts allowed by law without going through a financial institution.
The offences, according to the Commission, contravene the provisions of Sections 15 (3) (4), 16 (2) (b), and 16 (5) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act, 2012.
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