The 13th prosecution witness, PW 13, Abubakar Madaki, in the ongoing trial of a former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has told Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos how a former National Security Adviser, NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki( rtd.) gave the defendant the sum of N1.2bn cash to disguise the source of the fund.
The Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had, on Tuesday, July 2, 2019, re-arraigned Fayose and Spotless Investment Limited on an 11-count charge bordering on money laundering and stealing to the tune of N6.9bn ( Six Billion Nine Hundred Thousand Naira).
The defendants were first arraigned on October 22, 2018 before Justice Mojisola Olatoregun.
Earlier in the proceedings, a former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, had told the Judge that he was instructed by Dasuki to transfer N1.2 billion to Fayose from an account used as Boko Haram Special Intervention Account.
According to Obanikoro, the N1.2 billion was initially transferred from the imprest account of the NSA into the intervention account.
Madaki, an investigator with the EFCC, had also informed the court that , contrary to the statement made to the Commission by Fayose that the money was a campaign donation from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), investigation revealed that the fund was from the office of the NSA and that it was budgeted for the purchase of security equipment.
At the resumed sitting on Monday, July 1, 2024, Madaki, under cross-examination by counsel to the second defendant , Olalekan Ojo, SAN, testified that there was no transaction relevant to the charge when the first defendant personally made it.
When asked if he recalled telling the court that he did not witness any of the transactions in the case, Madaki replied that “I only said it was in the course of the investigations.”
Also, when asked if all conclusions made available to the court, including the investigations made in respect to the charge, were based on facts, he said, “ Yes, including documents recovered in the course of investigations”
In his response to an enquiry about one “Eruka”, the PW 13 stated that a statement was also obtained from him during investigations.
However, when the defence counsel sought to know if the said Eruka was in Abuja on the same day Obanikoro had claimed he was in Abuja, the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, raised an objection, saying the witness could not be made to “give evidence on an extra-judicial statement of a dead man, which was merely tendered.”
In his ruling, the trial Judge held that the witness should answer the question in the interest of justice.
Consequently, the witness, in his response, said:” I can’t find the part where it was stated.”
Asked if he saw any document where Fayose had acknowledged receipt of any amount of Dollars from Obanikoro, the witness said: ” No”.
Under cross-examination by counsel to the 1st defendant, Ola Olanipekun, SAN, the witness confirmed his earlier evidence that the sum of N4.6 billion was transferred by Dasuki to one Sivan Macnamara.
Explaining how the transfer was done,he said it was done by the Office of the NSA from its imprest account to Macnamara’s Diamond Bank account.
However, when Olanipekun put it to him that he said payment was made from NSA to Macnamara and that part of the money was meant to be transferred to the first defendant, he kicked, saying, “I never said transfer; I said it was meant for the first defendant.”
At the point, the defense counsel sought to know if the witness investigated why the transfer was not made to the first defendant if the funds were meant for him.
In his response, he said: “Questions were asked and investigations showed that it was meant to disguise the source of the money; so, it was given by cash to avoid traces”.
The case was adjourned to July 19, 2024 and October 17 and 18, 2024 for continuation of trial.