I delivered $15.8m Cash to Benue Former Governor, Prosecution Witness Tells Court

<h4>I delivered &dollar;15&period;8m Cash to Benue Former Governor&comma; Prosecution Witness Tells Court<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that Abubakar Umar&comma; the Sixth Prosecution Witness&comma;PW6&comma; in the trial of former governor of Benue State&comma; Gabriel Suswam&comma; has narrated before the Federal High Court&comma; Maitama&comma; Abuja and presided over by Justice Peter Lifu how in 2014&comma; he converted the sum of N3&period;1 billion&comma; wired to him by Suswam as governor and delivered its equivalent of &dollar;15&period;8m in cash to him at his Maitama&comma; Abuja residence&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Suswan&comma; alongside his then Commissioner of Finance&comma; Omodachi Okolobia are facing 11-count amended charges of money laundering to the tune of N3&period;1 billion&comma; being part of the proceeds from the sales of the state government’s shares held on its behalf by the Benue Investment and Property Company Limited&comma; sold through Elixir Securities Limited and Elixir Investment Partners Limited&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>During the court’s proceedings&comma; the witness&comma; a bureau de change operator and CEO of Fanffash Resources&comma; who has been testifying on the matter since 2018&comma; first&comma; before Justice A&period;R Mohammed and later Justice Okon Abang&comma; disclosed that the total sum of N3&period;1 billion was transferred to him by Suswam&comma; through a proxy in tranches with the first tranche of N413 million hitting his account on August 8&comma; 2014 and the remaining&comma; coming in subsequently to sum up to N3&period;1billion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Umar&comma; while being led in evidence by prosecution counsel&comma; Rotimi Jacobs&comma; SAN&comma; affirmed that the proxy who did the naira transfers to him was a woman&period; According to the witness&comma; he had to change a total sum of N3&period;1billion to dollars&comma; which he said amounted to &dollar;15&period;8 million at the rate of N197 to a dollar and delivered it to Suswam in his Maitama&comma; Abuja residence&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<em><strong>One day in 2014&comma; when I was in the office&comma; the former governor of Benue State asked me to meet him in his house in Maitama&comma; Abuja&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>I went and met him in the house together with one fair woman&period; He asked me to give the woman my account number&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>I gave the woman my Zenith Bank account number&period; The woman said she’ll send money into that account&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;On the 8th of August 2014&comma; N413 million was transferred to my account&period; Based on this&comma; I called the former governor and he told me to change the money to dollars and I asked him to give me time to do that&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong> Three days after I bought the dollar equivalent&comma; I called the former governor and informed him that the money was ready&period; He now asked me to take the money to his house in Maitama&comma; near Jumat Mosque&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong> I now told him that he should inform the security at the gate that I was coming&comma; if not they’ll not allow me access into the gate&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>I took a cab to the house&comma; and after I arrived at the house&comma; I knocked at the gate and they opened&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong> I told them my name&period; They opened the first and second gates and I sat in the waiting room where he came and met me&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>I now brought out the money which we both confirmed to be the equivalent of the N413 million&period; The exchange rate then was N197<&sol;strong><&sol;em>”&comma; he said<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Testifying further&comma; he said&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;On the 12th of September 2014&comma; N637 million was transferred to my account&period; After N637million was transferred to my account&comma; after like 40 minutes N363 million was also transferred into my account&period; On 13th October 2014&comma; N630&comma; 008&comma;50&comma; &lpar;Six Hundred and Thirty Million&comma; Eight Thousand and Fifty Naira&rpar; was also transferred to my account&period; On 17th October 2014 1&comma;0068&comma;000 &lpar;One Billion&comma; Sixty-eight Million&rpar; was transferred to my account&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>It is the woman that was directed by the former governor to do the transfers&period; The total money transferred to my account was N3 billion”&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The witness who stated that he was neither arrested by the EFCC for giving any testimony in favor of the defendant&comma; nor threatened by the Commission to give evidence against the defendant&comma; further disclosed that he did not have receipts for the transactions&comma; so also no record book for them&comma; stating that he buys dollars from his fellow retailers and only records based on discretion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Justice Lifu adjourned the matter till October 4&comma;2024&comma; for continuation of trial&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;