Alleged N33.2bn Fraud: Court Adjourns Case Against Dasuki, Others
An Abuja High Court on Tuesday adjourned the trial of former National Security Adviser, retired Col. Sambo Dasuki, until Oct. 21 to enable the EFCC to list a witness to testify in the case.
Dasuki is standing trial on an amended 32-count charge bordering on criminal breach of trust, dishonest release and receiving various sums of money to the tune of N33.2 billion.
He was accused of misappropriation of security funds in the accounts of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), alongside a former General Manager with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Aminu Baba-Kusa.
Others are two firms: Acacia Holdings Limited and Reliance Referral Hospital Limited.
The EFCC arraigned the four defendants afresh on March 25 and accused Dasuki, among others, of releasing the equivalent of N10 billion in foreign currencies from the NSA’s account.
The account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the 2014 presidential primary election of the then ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Dasuki and his co-defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges, marked as FCT/HC/CR/43/2015.
At the resumed hearing of the case, the prosecution witness, Adariku Michael, a detective with the EFCC, informed the court that the anti-corruption commission received an intelligence report on Sept. 21, 2015, bordering on abuse of office and money laundering.
He alleged the NSA moved huge sums of money between October 2014 and April 2015 to accounts of various companies.
The witness said the report was assigned to a special taskforce team headed by ACE 1 Halimah Kazeem, of which he was a member, to carry out investigations on the report.
“I got to know about this case when the commission (EFCC) received an intelligence report on Sept. 21, 2015, bordering on abuse of office and money laundering.
The witness said that on receiving the report, the special task force promptly swung into action and wrote a letter of investigation activities to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
It was at this point that counsel for Baba-Kusa, Solomon Umoh SAN, told the court that the witness was not listed by the prosecution on the list of witnesses in the paper the EFCC served the defence team.
“This is against the provisions of Section 379 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA),” he said.
The prosecution counsel, Oluwaleke Atolagbe, however, told the court that the witness had given evidence before the Chief Judge in the case.
He further submitted that several documents were tendered by the prosecution as exhibits through the witness.
”This case had lasted almost 10 years,” he said.
Atolagbe, however, sought an adjournment for the prosecution to do the needful.
This was not opposed by the defence team.
Based on this, the presiding judge, Justice Charles Agbaza, adjourned the case until Oct. 31 for continuation of hearing.
(NAN)
Hafsoh Isiaq is a graduate of Linguistics. An avid writer committed to creative, high-quality research and news reportage. She has considerable experience in writing and reporting across a variety of platforms including print and online.
