Respite came
yesterday for Azibaola Robert, cousin to ex President Goodluck Jonathan and his
wife Stella, at the Federal High Court Abuja, as testimony of a witness of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) further exonerated him of
collecting any money paid for a ‘safe house’ by the Office of the National
Security Adviser (ONSA) headed by former National Security Adviser (NSA)
Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd).
When trial
resumed on Friday, the 10th prosecution witness, David Mkpe, an EFCC operative,
told the trial judge, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court Abuja,
that Robert, his wife and company, Oneplus Holdings, did not collect any money
for the ‘safe house.’
According to
him, “The petition we received from the Presidential Investigative Committee on
Arms Procurement (PICAP) was to specifically investigate the N650m paid into
the account of Tunji Adeniyi & Co by ONSA,” Mkpe said under cross-examination
by the Defence Counsel Chris Uche, SAN.
“We
investigated the complaint (from PICAP) and found out that no part of the N650
million paid for the safe house was found in any of the accounts of the
defendants (Robert, his wife Stella, and Oneplus Holdings Limited)”
“Tunji
Adeniyi had earlier testified before this court that he had refunded the said
N650 million to the ONSA and also wrote and made statement before the EFCC
confirming the refund.”
Mkpe told
the court that Alhaji Numan Danbatta is the owner of property located at Plot
2245 in Maitama, Abuja for which the sum of N650 million was paid by the ONSA
into the account of Tunji Adeniyi & Co.
“I did not
take statement from Alhaji Danbatta, and I have never sighted any statement
given by him in the course of our investigation.”
He also
informed the court that “All the five members of the EFCC Special Task Force
Team 2 which investigated the complaint of the Presidential committee were
non-conventional police officers, except one, CSP Ibrahim Musa, adding, that
the team was disbanded immediately they concluded their investigation.
Mkpe had
earlier during proceedings informed the court that he was aware that a member
of the Presidential committee which sent the complaint to the EFCC to
investigate, had been arrested, detained and is being investigated by the
Department of State Services (DSS) for alleged fraud.
Exhibit
ASO23 was tendered and admitted before the court and Justice Igwe directed the
prosecution to make available the original copy of the exhibits to the defence
on or before the adjourned date.
Robert, his
wife and his firm, Oneplus, are standing trial for allegedly receiving the sum
of $40 million from the Office of the National Security Adviser for the supply
of security communication kits but which was laundered.
So far, all
the prosecution witnesses except the EFCC operative, Mkpe, who claimed to have
investigated the suspects, have denied transacting any business or knowing them
before they met in court.
Continuation
of trial was adjourned to October 18 and 20, this year.
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