The prosecution on Thursday opened the
trial of the alleged N22.8 billion fraud
against a former Chief of Air Staff, Adesola
Amosu and 10 others in a Federal High
Court, Lagos.
The accused are being prosecuted by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) before Justice Mohammed Idris.
They were arraigned on June 26 and had
pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The judge had granted them bail in the sum
of N500 million each with two sureties each
in like sum.
At the resumed proceedings, counsel to the
EFCC, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, called his first
witness, Mr Mojeed Olatunji, a compliance
officer with Skye bank.
Olatunji told the court that the Nigerian Air
Force (NAF) had an account numbered
1750013097 with Skye Bank
He said the account had as its signatories
as at Jan. 28, 2014, Air CommodoreJ.B.
Adigun, Air Commodore O.O. Gbadebo and
Group Capt. B.O.G. Ifeobu
He said that Adigun, Gbadebo and Ifeobu
were those who had the mandate on the
account and on whose instruction monies
were withdrawn.
Armed with the statement of the said NAF’s
account with Skye Bank, Olatunji took the
court through a number of inflow and
outflow of cash transactions carried out on
the account.
For example, he told the court how N2.4
billion was credited into the account on
Sept. 11, 2014 and how this was followed by a debit transactions of N959.7 million,
N893.2 million and N556.3 million,
respectively.
The witness said that the debit was in
favour of the NAF Special Emergency
Operation account.
Justice Idris further adjourned trial till Oct.
21.
The charges against the accused borders on conspiracy, stealing and money laundering.
In one of the counts, the accused were said
to have indirectly converted N3.6 billion
belonging to the Nigerian Air force, to their
own use.
In another instance, the EFCC alleged that
Amosun and the others stole over N323
million from the accounts of the Nigerian Air
Force between March 21, 2014 and March
12, 2015.
He said the alleged theft was for the
purpose of purchasing for themselves a
property situated at No.1, River Street, Wuse
II, Abuja.
The alleged offences contravened
Section18(a) of the Money Laundering
(Prohibition) (Amendment) Act, 2012.
Culled from NAN
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