A former Director of Finance at the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, Shuaibu Salisu Abdulmalik, on Tuesday said ex-NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki(rtd) paid the sum of N2.1bn into a bank account belonging to the founder of Daar Communications LTD, Raymond Dokpesi, without any contract.
Abdulmalik, a second prosecution witness made the claim while testifying before Justice John Tsoho-led Abuja Federal High Court.
Being led in evidence by counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs, the witness said the money was not captured in the NSA budget.
Abdulmalik, who was Director of Finance and Administration at ONSA between November 2010 to 2015 said, “My schedule of duty includes: general administration; finance; preparation of budget and salaries. I also liaise with the accountant-general of the federation, AGF, as well as the minister of finance.
“Sometime in January 2015, the then NSA (Dasuki) and I were having breakfast in his office as usual when he gave me Dr. Dokpesi’s number and asked me to call him. He said Dokpesi would give me an account number and that I should credit the account with N500million. After breakfast, I called Dokpesi and introduced myself to him. He sent his PA to me, who was woman and whose name I have forgotten. The woman gave me Dopkesi’s personal account number, but I told her that the CBN would not pay money to a personal account.”
The witness disclosed that following Dasuki’s directive, he met with Dokpesi’s Personal Assistant, who fashioned him with details of Daar Investments and Holding Company Limited’s account domiciled with First Bank.
He said,“I collected the account details and prepared the mandate for NSA to sign. The NSA did not tell me the purpose of the transfer, so in the mandate, I put MEDIA CAMPAIGN as the purpose of the transfer and took the mandate to CBN.”
Abdulmalik also informed the court that ONSA transferred additional funds to the same account.
The witness said, “the transfers totalled N2,120,000,000,” adding that the funds were transferred between January and March 2015, adding that “to the best of my knowledge, no contract existed between the ONSA and Dokpesi nor his company.
“We did not budget for any media campaign. As far as I can remember, this is the first time such payment will be made from the ONSA.”
After listening to his testimonies, Justice Tsoho adjourned the trial to February 7 and 8, 2017.
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