The trial of a former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, before Justice John Tsoho of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja continued on Tuesday with the testimony of Mohammed Goji, the third prosecution witness (PW3).
While being led in evidence by the prosecuting counsel, Faruk Abdullahi, the witness, who is an operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), narrated how N26 million was traced to the defendant during the course of investigating contracts executed by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) under Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retd).
“We got intelligence report about some certain amount of money running into billions of naira meant for contracts in the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA. Along the line, we discovered that N26m was paid for media consultancy for which there was no record that the project was executed.
“We wrote series of letters to the Office of the NSA where we got payment vouchers and proposals indicating how the said sum was paid.
“In the course of investigation, we gathered that the defendant directed his domestic servants comprising of his driver, by name, Francis, and his personal assistant, named Victor, to access the funds from the NSA.
“They took the cash sum in a ‘Ghana –Must- Go’ bag from the account section of the NSA and took it to the defendant’s residence as directed”, Goji said.
The witness also narrated how a search warrant was executed in the residence of the defendant on 10th May 2016 and afterwards invited the defendant to the EFCC office for an interview. He said the defendant volunteered his statements under caution on May 11 and 12, 2016.
Prosecuting counsel, Abdullah, after the testimony of the witness, tendered in evidence documents comprising the search warrant and the three statements which the defendant made while in EFCC custody
Justice Tsoho adjourned the case till April 21, 2021, for continuation of trial.
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