Ramon Oladimeji
An authority of Fidelity Bank Plc, Mr Timothy Olaobaju, on Monday, described how a previous Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, reserved a total of $115,010,000 in the manage an account with ensuing direction to change it into naira and convey it among people in the 36 conditions of the league.
Among the recipients, Olaobaju stated, were a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Dele Belgore; and a previous Minister of National Planning, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, who both got N450m.
Olaobaju said this on Monday when he showed up as an arraignment witness before Justice Rilwan Aikawa of the Federal High Court in Lagos where Belgore and Sulaiman are being striven for asserted illegal tax avoidance including N450m.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission accused Belgore and Sulaiman of five checks.
Accused along of the SAN and the ex-pastor is Diezani, who is said to "even now be on the loose."
The EFCC had before summoned Belgore and Sulaiman on February 8, 2017, however they were re-charged on Monday on an altered charge which incorporated the name of Diezani.
Upon their re-arraignment on Monday, Belgore and Sulaiman argued not blameworthy to the five charges similarly as they had before done.
Trial started quickly after the litigants' request with the EFCC calling Olaobaju as its first witness.
Driven in confirmation by the EFCC prosecutor, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, the witness described, "At some point in April 2014, our MD, Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo, gave a mandate that specific organizations and people would pay into a record with our bank a few measures of cash. The motivation behind the installment was not revealed.
"Over the period, from that point, a few sums were paid into the record. The assets were kept in dollar. The aggregate total was $115,010,000.
"On the 27th of March, 2015, there was a guideline from the previous Petroleum Resources Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, through our MD, that the reserve in the record ought to be changed over to naira and paid to specific people of which the rundown of recipients was sent to our MD and the add up to be paid to them in naira.
"The assets were paid by Alison-Madueke's guidelines.
"On the rundown sent to our branch, the names of the litigants (Belgore and Sulaiman) were on that rundown in light of the fact that the cash was paid in around 36 conditions of the alliance.
"The respondents are not clients of our bank.
"The guideline was that the total of N450m ought to be paid to Mr Dele Belgore (SAN) and Prof. Abubakar Suleiman.
"They both got the cash and they filled the Receipt of Payment as confirmation of receipt of the cash and affirmation of same."
The witness said Belgore and Sulaiman marked separate Receipts of Payment for the same N450m on March 26, 2015.
The court conceded both Receipts of Payment in proof and stamped them as Exhibits 1 and 1A.
Asked by the prosecutor whether any check was issued for Belgore and Sulaiman in regard of the store, the witness replied in the negative.
Asked whether the N450m was credited into any record, the witness stated, "as far as anyone is concerned, the N450m was not credited into any record."
For the interrogation of the witness, Belgore's attorney, Chief Ebun Shofunde (SAN), requested a suspension, as he said the vast majority of what the witness said on Monday were not in the confirmation of proof front-stacked and served on the safeguard guide.
Sulaiman's legal advisor, Mr Olatunji Ayanlaja (SAN), adjusted himself to Shofunde.
The prosecutor said he would grudgingly yield to a dismissal till Tuesday in perspective of his regard for the protection guide.
Equity Aikawa, subsequently, suspended the matter till Tuesday for further procedures.
In the charges, Sulaiman, a teacher of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Abuja, and Belgore, a previous governorship applicant in Kwara State, were blamed for planning between themselves to confer the offense on March 27, 2015.
The team were blamed for making a money exchange of N450m on March 27, 2015, without experiencing any monetary establishment.
The EFCC guaranteed that the litigants paid N50m to one Sheriff Shagaya.
The EFCC said the money entirety was over the legitimate edge allowed by the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.
The EFCC guaranteed that the litigants "should have sensibly realized that the N450m shaped some portion of continues of an unlawful demonstration."
Belogore and Sulaiman were blamed for damaging areas 1(a), 16(d), 15(2)(d) and18(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act, 2012.
The indictment said they are subject to be rebuffed under areas 15(3)(4), and 16(2)(b) of a similar Act.
Equity Aikawa had before allowed them abandon self-recognizance.