AN operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, on Friday, revealed before a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, how Former FCT Minister, Jumoke Akinjide and others received N650 million from Allison Madueke also a former Minister.
Usman Zakari who investigated the case, and appeared as the second prosecution witness narrated to the court how Akinjide and others allegedly took the delivery of the money in March 2015.
According to him, Akinjide and two others collected the N650 million cash at a new generation bank in Ibadan on the standing instruction of a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke.
Zakari said his investigation revealed that the N650m was part of a total sum of N23bn which Diezani warehoused in the bank.
He said he found that the N23bn was the naira equivalent of a total of $115.01m, which Diezani collected from three oil marketers and one Lano Adesanya in the build-up to the 2015 general elections.
Zakari, who was led in evidence by the EFCC prosecutor, Rotimi Oyedepo, said his investigation followed “a top classified Category A intelligence” about a meeting convened by Diezani in her house in December 2014.
According to Zakari, at the meeting, the ex-petroleum minister informed Okonkwo that the oil marketers would be bringing different dollar sums to him, which she instructed the bank chief to help her keep in the bank’s vault until further instructions.
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Zakari further said after the meeting, one Autus Integrated Limited took $17.8m to the bank; another company, Northern Belt Oil and Gas, took $60m to the bank; while one Mid-Western Oil Services Limited also paid $9.5m.
“An individual, Lano Adesanya, brought the sum of $1.8m; our findings further revealed that the three oil marketers made payment of the sum of $89m and some fractions. Investigations further revealed that the then petroleum minister’s aides made available $25m and some fractions in suitcases, which were warehoused in the bank’s cash vault,” the investigator narrated.
“Upon the receipt of the money by the bank, the then petroleum minister instructed the bank to convert the said amount into naira, precisely on March 26, 2015.
“The bank complied with the instruction; the said amount was converted into naira to the tune of N23bn and some fractions.
“After the conversion, the then petroleum minister, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, instructed the bank to pay the 1st defendant (Akinjide) and the 2nd defendant (Senator Ayo Adeseun) and one Mr Yinka Taiwo the sum of N650m, through her son, Ogbonna Madueke.
“They signed for the money and took it to the residence of the 1st defendant (Akinjide).
“The defendants made a cash payment of N650m without going through any financial institution, an amount which was more than the amount authorised by law to be paid in cash,” Zakari said.
He told the court that upon being interrogated, Akinjide and Adeseun “admitted making cash payments in that amount.”
But the defence counsel, Chief Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN), Michael Lana and Akinola Oladeji, urged the court to expunge Zakari’s entire evidence for being hearsay.
They contended that the investigator could not give evidence about the meeting in Diezani’s residence and the payments of money, which he did not personally witness.
He added that the persons competent to testify about the meeting were Diezani, the bank’s MD and the oil marketers who were present.
He said since it was not established that the people who attended the meeting were dead, Zakari could not testify about the meeting.
But the prosecutor, Oyedepo, maintained that Zakari’s evidence was not hearsay but his personal findings in the course of his investigation.
“The evidence given by PW2 of his investigative findings cannot be hearsay,”Oyedepo maintained.
Justice Muslim Hassan thereafter adjourned till March 23, 2018, for the continuation of trial.‎
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