Mr. Adariko Michael, an Economic and Financial Crimes Commision, EFCC witness, on Wednesday alleged that two companies belonging to a former General Manager of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Aminu Baba-kusa, received N2.2 billion.
Micheal made this known while testifying on day two in the trial of former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, in the alleged two billion dollars arms deal fraud in an FCT High Court.
The witness, who is an EFCC investigating officer, was led in evidence by the EFCC counsel, Rotimi Jacobs
He alleged that the amount was part of the N5 billion approved for the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) for the 2015 gubernatorial and state House of Assembly elections.
The EFCC charged Dasuki, Others charged with Dasuki, Baba-kusa, Acacia Holdings Limited and Reliance Referral Hospital Limited with
32-count charge bordering on misappropriation, criminal breach of trust, dishonest release and receiving various sums of money from the ONSA.
Michael informed the court that based on a report from the ONSA, the EFCC investigated the matter and discovered that N5billion was transfered from the ONSA’s signatory bonus account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to another account domiciled with Zenith Bank.
“From our investigation, we discovered that N5billion was debited to the ONSA’s CBN account with the account number 000000400225220 and credited to the account of ONSA in Zenith Bank.
“The N5billion was taken from a signatory bonus account to prepare for the Governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections as approved by the Accountant-General of the Federation.
“We found out that Reliance Referral Hospital Limited, was credited with N750million on April 17, 2015.
“We also discovered that on the same April 17, 2015, the accounts of Acacia Holdings Limited with EcoBank, UBA were credited with N650million and N600million respectively.
“We further discovered that the two companies belonged to Baba-kusa,” he told the court.
The witness, who is the first prosecution witness (PW1), stated that as part of its investigation activities into the matter, EFCC got statement of accounts of the two companies and confirmed that various payments were paid to individuals and companies.
He added that the anti-graft agency invited some of the individuals in the companies and they confirmed that they got various sums of money.
He informed the court that the second defendant made his statement in the presence of three EFCC operatives.
After listening to the testimony, Justice Hussein Baba-Yusuf adjourned the matter until Feb. 9, 2021.
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