Alleged $40m scam: EFCC witnesses deny dealing with Jonathan’s cousin

Three prosecution witnesses on Friday told a Federal High Court, Abuja, that they never dealt with the cousin of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Azibaola Robert and his wife, Stella. They were testifying in the case of alleged laundering of $40 million cash.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Robert and others for allegedly diverting $40 million purportedly meant for supply of Tactical Communication kits for Special Forces which was transferred from the account of the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, with the Central Bank of Nigeria to the domiciliary account of their company, One Plus Holdings.

At the resumed hearing Friday, the witnesses however confirmed dealing with the Robert’s firm, One Plus Holdings.

The witnesses: Mohammed A. Bello, Confidence Onabu and Remigius Ugwu testified as PW6, PW7 and PW8 respectively and were led in evidence by counsel to EFCC, Sylvanus Tahir.

Bello told the court that between October 2014 and April 2015, he met one Amobi Ogum who is the account relationship officer for One Plus through his account officer in Zenith Bank, Obinna Amaechi.

He told the court that his first encounter with One Plus was for a transaction of $150,000, in which he gave the bank the Dollars (in cash) for it to be transferred to his domiciliary account because the bank did not have dollars in cash to give to customers.

He stated that, within the period under reference, there was a total transaction of $6,600,000 into his account from One Plus, adding that, at times he used to pay Naira into the account of one Kamaludeen Dahiru supplied by Ogum.

Under cross-examination by Gordy Uche (SAN), Bello said the entire transaction was based on instruction from Ogum saying, “I used to do cash swap in which I pay dollar to naira or sometimes dollar to dollar exchange.”

In her evidence, Onabu, a marketer who works with a subsidiary of Capital Field Investment & Trust Limited told the court that she had never met the first and second defendants (Azibaola and Stella), but had dealings with the third defendant, One Plus, between 2014 and 2015.

Onabu explained that sometimes in April 2015, one Obinna Amaechi, a banker with Zenith bank informed her of a colleague in Abuja, who had a client with some free funds in dollars for sale and wanted to know if their company would be interested in purchasing it.

She said she referred back to Amaechi, informing him of the readiness of her company (Capital Field) to purchase $2 million and asked if they had it available. She told the court that Amaechi, through a text message, sent her the account details where he wanted the Naira equivalent deposited.

According to her, Capital Field credited the Naira equivalent of N400 million to one Dahiru Kamaludeen, while Capital Field was credited with $2 million dollars by One Plus.

Also testifying, Ugwu, a compliance officer with Zenith Bank stated he knew the third defendant, One Plus, who had both Dollar and Naira account in their bank.

He told the court that the bank received a letter from EFCC between February 2016 and April 2016 requesting for account opening package, statement of account and certificate of identification in respect of Karahyna Nigeria Limited, Reya Telecommunications Nigeria Limited, Capital Field Investment & Trust Limited and Teledom International Limited in respect of their dollar account including that of Dahiru adding that, “all were provided to the EFCC as requested”.

The trial judge, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba thereafter adjourned the case to June 20