The trial of former National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki, continued on Friday at an Abuja High Court, with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) presenting a fresh set of documents as evidence in the alleged N33.2 billion fraud case.
Colonel Dasuki is being prosecuted alongside a former General Manager of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Aminu Baba-Kusa, and two companies—Acacia Holdings Limited and Reliance Referral Hospital Limited.
The EFCC has brought an amended 32-count charge against the defendants, which includes accusations of criminal breach of trust and the dishonest release and receipt of vast sums of public money.
The case, which originated in 2015, saw the defendants re-arraigned on March 25th of this year. They have all entered pleas of not guilty to the charges.
At the heart of the allegations is the claim that Colonel Dasuki, while in office, misappropriated security funds from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA). The anti-graft agency has specifically accused him of authorising the release of the equivalent of N10 billion in foreign currencies from an ONSA account held at the Central Bank of Nigeria. These funds were allegedly intended for the 2014 presidential primary election of the then-ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
During the latest hearing, the prosecution, led by Senior Advocate of Nigeria Rotimi Jacobs, called its first witness, Adariku Michael, a detective with the EFCC. Mr Michael provided the court with a detailed account of the investigation’s origins.
He informed the court that the commission “received intelligence report on Sept. 21, 2015 bordering on abuse of office and money laundering.” This report, he explained, was assigned to a special task force for investigation.
The witness narrated how the team “swung into action and wrote a letter to the CBN.” His testimony outlined the alleged movement of large sums of money from the ONSA account between October 2014 and April 2015, stating that funds were transferred “to accounts of various companies.”
Mr Michael, led by the prosecution counsel, tendered several documents as evidence. These included the official responses received from the Central Bank of Nigeria and other commercial banks following the special task force’s requests.
The defence counsel for the various defendants—A.A. Usman for Dasuki, Solomon Umoh, SAN, for Baba-Kusa and Acacia Holdings, and A.O. Ayodele for Reliance Referral Hospital—chose to reserve their objections to the documents for a later time.
To ensure the smooth progress of the trial, the parties agreed, as suggested by Mr Umoh, to be provided with the documents beforehand.
Presiding Justice Charles Agbaza admitted the newly tendered documents as exhibits and subsequently adjourned the case until the 11th of November for the continuation of the hearing.
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