A witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the on-going trial of former senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani on Monday, told the Federal High Court, Abuja that the former Senator obtained a bribe of USD$25,000 from him.
Shehu Sani is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a two-count criminal charge bordering on name-dropping, influence-peddling and obtaining the sum of USD$25,000 from Alhaji Sani Dauda, who is the chairman of ASD Group of Companies and a board member, Peugeot Automobile Ltd and a plaintiff in the criminal matter.
The anti-graft agency accused the former senator of obtaining the USD$25,000 from his victim under a false pretence that he would use the sum to bribe the acting chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, to shield him from EFCC’s investigation and prosecution and to prompt the Commission to arrest and prosecute Dauda’s estranged son-in-law, one Abubakar Musa.
At the resumed sitting of the matter on Monday, Dauda who testified as prosecution witness six (PW 6), told the court how Shehu Sani allegedly blackmailed him into parting with the said sum.
He said, “Shehu Sani came to sympathize with me on November 12, 2020 when the husband of my daughter, Abubkar Musa, divorced her about three years ago and we had issue where the Inspector-General of police arrested and detained me and my family. Then, Sani told me that he was going to Abuja and promised to help me out of the case.
“When he reached Abuja, he called me on November 19, 2019, that he wanted to see me, and that the issue will not be discussed on phone, that it was better we met in person. I then came to Abuja and Sani came to my Maitama residence where he informed me that he spoke with the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) about my matter. I then told him that I wanted to meet the CJN in person, but Sani told me that he can’t see me because the DSS and other security men were watching his moves; hence, he can only communicate with me on phone.
“I communicated with someone purported to be CJN, where he asked me if I knew any judge, I told him no, then he said he gave Sani a message, and that he will relate it with me. That’s where Sani told me about four judges whom the CJN assigned to help me in my case.
“He further said I should give him some money to sort out the judges, a million naira for each of them and one million naira for an operative of the EFCC to prosecute my in-law, Musa because he has a case with EFCC, making the total, five million naira.
“I then informed him that I don’t have money, but he insisted, leaving me with no choice but to call one Abubakar, a bureau de change operator the following day to give me five million naira, an equivalent of $13,937. Then I had some dollars with me because I just returned from the lesser hajj. I put them all together to make $15,000.”
Shehu Sani, he further stated, informed him that he has an axe to grind with Musa, having allegedly identified him as among the people who ensured that he did not return to the Senate in 2019.
Earlier, the fifth prosecution witness, Bala Ismail, who has been ASD’s domestic worker for 20 years, narrated to the court how Shehu Sani came to ASD’s residence in Maitama, Abuja, five times and left with an envelope which he said he didn’t know the contents on all of the occasions.
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