Mustapha Mohammed, a witness in the trial of a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Haliru Bello and his son Mustapha Mohammed on Wednesday told Justice A. R Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja, how over N160 million was paid to Umar Tafida Kebbi, a former governorship aspirant in Kebbi State, by former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd).
Bello and his son are on trial alongside their company, Bam Project and Properties Limited, on a four-count charge of money laundering preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
They were alleged to have collected N300 million from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) being part of the funds meant to fight insurgency in the North-East of the country.
Mohammed, a banker with United Bank for Africa (UBA), who was led in evidence by Adebisi Adeniyi, counsel to EFCC, said: “On March 23, 2015 an inflow of N163,800,000 was made from BAM Projects and Properties Limited to Hijrah Textile Nigeria Limited whose sole signatory was Umar Tafida Kebbi, a former gubernatorial aspirant and a traditional title holder.”
According to him, the balance on the account before the inflow was N25 million. He went on to tell the court how N10 million was withdrawn in 16 tranches on March 25, 2015 and another N2.8 million, all on same day.
Mohammed, who testified as PW4 stated that sometime in November 2015, a letter was sent to the Compliance Unit of UBA from EFCC requesting it to come with some documents regarding Hijrah Textile Nigeria Limited which included account opening package, mandate card, statement of account from January 2011 to December 2015, as well as the instrument used in crediting and debiting the account.
The letter to EFCC Chairman with the attached documents was admitted as Exhibit PL8, while the other letter with instruments used was admitted as Exhibit PL9.
Thereafter, Justice Mohammed adjourned to May 10, 2017 for further hearing.
