A property developer and witness in a trial case, Aliyu Abubakar, has told a federal high court sitting in Abuja that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) asked him to implicate former President Goodluck Jonathan and Mohammed Bello Adoke, former attorney-general of the federation, in money laundering.
Speaking under cross-examination on Tuesday, 19 July, in the trial-within-trial, Abubakar said Bala Sanga, then-EFCC prosecutor, asked him on December 31, 2019, to claim that he gave Adoke $2o million and Jonathan $50 million “so that I would not be detained into the new year”.
He said he was then forced to sign a prepared statement with the threat that he would be detained on the orders of Ibrahim Magu, who was the EFCC chairman at the time if he did not cooperate with the agency.
On August 4, 2020, the EFCC had arraigned Adoke (1st defendant) and Abubukar (2nd defendant) before Justice Inyang Ekwo on allegations of money laundering.
The agency alleged that Adoke made a cash payment of $2,267,400 to Unity Bank in 2013 in contravention of money laundering laws.
Adoke, in his memoir, said Abubakar had in 2011 offered him a property for N500 million out of which Unity Bank provided a mortgage of N300 million, which was then equal to about $2.2 million.
He said when he could not raise the funds to pay his equity contribution of N200 million, Abubakar refunded the mortgage to Unity, repossess the property and sold it to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2013.
Abubakar refunded the N300 million directly to Unity Bank, Adoke had written.
However, EFCC’s star witness, Rislanudeen Mohammed, who was the acting MD of Unity Bank when Abubakar refunded the mortgage in 2013, told the court that there was no money laundering involved in the transaction, insisting that it was ‘transparent and legitimate.’
On Tuesday, the trial before Ekwo continued with a new prosecutor, Ofem Uket, taking over after the withdrawal of Sanga.
Abubakar was presented by Wole Olanikpekun while Adoke’s team, led by Kanu Agabi, has been joined by Victor Ndoma Egba and Aliyu Sarki. All are senior lawyers.
During the resumed trial, Abubakar, a business mogul, told the judge that the extra-judicial statements he made on December 31, 2019, and on January 6, 2020, were not made voluntarily, NAN reports.
He said on December 31, 2019, when he was invited to the EFCC’s office, Sanga, threatened to detain him if he refused to make an extra-judicial statement.
Besides, Abubakar said on January 6, 2022, Sanga, who introduced himself as the new prosecutor in the matter, told him that there was an evidence before him (Sanga) which showed that he (Abubakar) gave the sum of 20 million dollars to Adoke.
Abubakar also told the court that Sanga informed him that there was another evidence which indicated that he (Abubakar) gave the sum of 50 million dollars to ex-President Jonathan.
“On the 31st December 2019, my lawyer, Ahmed Audu, came to me and said one Ibrahim Ahmed from EFCC called him that they needed clarification from me about this case.
“I followed my lawyer to the EFCC office. When I got there, some of the EFCC’s staff like Ibrahim, Babaginda and others came in and told me that I must give a confessional statement.
“They said that things have changed and somebody has to record me (on video), that his name is Bala Sanga.
“He introduced himself as the new prosecutor in this case. He thanked me and said I should continue to cooperate with them and that they will help me if I continue to cooperate with them.
“He then asked me questions. He asked my lawyer to write for me and I said no that I will not make any more statements because I had already made statements which are with them.
“He said if I don’t, they will detain me,” Abubakar said.
He said due to the fact that it was a festive period then, he had to succumb to the officer’s instruction.
“I realised the next day was January 1, 2020, that was why I decided that they should write for me,” he said.
When Olanipekun asked Abubakar if he had ever met Sanga in the court before, he said: “Yes, I met him here and he is the prosecutor and the one that was investigating me.”
Speaking on his experience at the anti-graft agency’s office, he said: “That day we went to the EFCC and they ask us to come the second day. Bala Sanga called me to one side saying Alhaji, I want to help you in this case.
“He (Sanga) asked how close I am to Adoke. He said you have to sacrifice somebody to be alive.
“He said there is evidence before him which he will show me at the right time; that he heard information that I gave Adoke 20 million dollars.
“I said what? How did it come? He said maybe because I and Adoke are from the same place and that was why I did not want to say anything.
“He also said that there is evidence before him that I gave Goodluck Jonathan 50 million dollars.
“He said if I did not agree to cooperate with him, he would charge me to court. So I said he should go ahead.”
Abubakar said the argument by the anti-graft agency that nobody asked him to implicate anybody was untrue.
Adoke’s counsel, Kanu Agabi, SAN, while crossed-examining Abubakar, asked him to reconfirm his statement that Sanga told him to implicate Adoke and he answered in the affirmative.
Counsel for the EFCC, Offem Uket, during his cross-examination, told Abubakar that the statements he made on December 31, 2019, and January 6, 2020, were voluntarily made.
He said in the video clip played in the open court on the last adjourned date, Abubakar did not protest against the directive by the agency’s officers on making the extra-judicial statements, however, the witness disagreed with Uket.
Also, the second defence witness, Ahmed Audu, who is Abubakar’s lawyer, also testified in the matter after Abubakar was discharged from the witness box.
Audu said he wrote the statement on Abubakar’s behalf on December 31, 2019.
“Sanga came in that day and asked my name and I said Barrister Ahmed.
”He said he was the new prosecutor in this matter and he took over from one Aliyu Yusuf.
“He said he needed some clarifications from us and my client rejected because he had written a number of statements over this matter.
“Ibrahim said anything Sanga asked us to do we should do. While we were there, we heard Magu (former EFCC’s chairman)’s siren coming in and I was even sweating and I felt guilty already.
“That was how we started the statement. That was what happened that day. After the statement, I ask Ahmed Ibrahim can I go with my client.
“They released us around 7.30 pm on that day and we protested that I will not sign and my client too.
“But they said we will not go until we sign. So they ask us to come on January 6, 2020,” he said.
After Uket’s cross-examined Audu, Justice Ekwo adjourned the matter until September 28 for a hearing.
‘You have to sacrifice somebody to be alive’ – Witness reveals how EFCC threatened him to to indict Jonathan, Adoke in money laundering case
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