Abubakar Aliyu, a witness in the ongoing trial of the founder of Daar Communications, Raymond Dokpesi, has revealed how the AIT boss allegedly used parts of the money he was accused of diverting from the office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA.
Dokpesi was accused by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of using Daar Communications Limited to divert N2.1 billion from the account of the office of the then NSA, Sambo Dasuki.
The witness, who is an investigative officer with the EFCC, told an Abuja Division of the Federal High Court that Dokpesi transferred some funds to certain beneficiaries for the purpose of obtaining the International Conference Centre for use by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Among the alleged beneficiaries were Abubakar Jawa. Mr. Aliyu said Mr. Jawa confirmed receiving N100 million from Mr. Dokpesi in the form of a loan.
“Investigations revealed that N8.1 million of the amount was used for political jingles for the PDP. N4.5 million was given to him (Martins) as a long service staff and as accident bonus for sustaining injury in the course of his official duty for AIT in Yola.
“The sum of N4.3 million and N2.7 million, respectively was used for the extension and electricity installation in the AIT Zonal office Yola. N1.3 million was used to dig a borehole in AIT’s office in Yola.
“Other beneficiaries, including Oluwatosin Dokpesi, a wife of the first defendant, benefited over N100 million. Gabriel Agorie and Godfrey Osifo are all staff of the first and second defendants. From the records submitted by the first defendant and the bank, they had received so much funds from the same accounts both through transfer and cash. They are the resource people, as claimed by the first defendant.
“Trendy Shade Nigeria Limited was discovered to be one of the beneficiaries in the course of the Investigation,” said Mr. Aliyu who added that a woman simply identified as Bose (because the witness could not pronounce her last name), confirmed the payment of N46 million in five trenches to Trendy Shades.
“The total amount paid to the company is N230 million by the second defendant on the instructions of the first defendant,” Mr. Aliyu said.
According to the witness, the various funds were paid from the account of the NSA domiciled at the Central Bank ofNigeria with final instructions from the office of the NSA. He added that the funds were reportedly paid for rebranding the image of the PDP.
The witness added that another sum of N400 million was paid to a beneficiary on January 23, 2015 while N30 million was paid in cash to Godfrey Osifo, among other payments.
“There were also print and electronic media in the original proposal by the first defendant. He claimed they were going to carry out media activities.
“For those who we were able to get their addresses, we wrote to them. Some of them are Silverbird, Kiss FM, Punch, Guardian, Peoples Media Limited, Media Trust, Liberty Radio, Abuja Broadcasting Corporation, among others.”
Comments