The trial of Former Aviation Minister Femi Fani- Kayode over alleged money laundering and other fraud-related offences continued on Thursday with the testimony of EFCC investigating Officer, Shehu Shuaibu at the federal high Court, Lagos.
Fani-Kayode is standing trial alongside a former Minister of State for Finance, Nenadi Usman; a former Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Yusuf Danjuma; and a company, Jointrust Dimensions Nigeria Ltd.
Giving his testimony on Thursday, Shehu Shuaibu said the sum of N4.6 billion allegedly transferred into a joint trust account was used to finance the presidential campaign of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
The witness further disclosed that the money was paid from the State House to the account of the Ministry of External Affairs before it was transferred into the Joint Trust account.
Under cross-examination, by counsel to the former finance minister, Mr Ferdinand Orbih (SAN), the witness stated that his team from the Special Task Force of the EFCC did not invite Jonathan throughout their investigations.
The witness admitted that the first Defendant, Nenadi Usman, was the Director of Finance, of President Goodluck Jonathan’s Campaign Organisation, while the second Defendant, Fani-Kayode, was the Director, of Media and Publicity of the organisation.
Asked why he did not invite Jonathan to confirm or deny if the money paid into the Joint Trust account was expended for his campaign or not, he said, “No, we did not invite him, since the President was not the one that expended the money.”
When asked why those that transferred money into the Joint Trust account were arrested and prosecuted, he said, “To the best of my knowledge, I do not know whether those that transferred money into the Joint Trust Account were charged to court or not. I am not a lawyer, and would not know why they have not been charged before the court.”
He however admitted that the money was paid by the Permanent Secretary of the State House, Nebolisa Emodi, who was invited for Interrogation by his team but not charged to court.
When asked to name those who stole the money for which the defendants are standing trial, the witness said he did not investigate the defendants for stealing, and so he would not know if they stole the money or not.
When the witness was confronted with a Certified True Copy of the Proceedings before Justice Rilwanu Aikawa, who was handling the case before he was transferred out of Lagos, where the witness had earlier stated that the money was stolen, he backtracked.
“I did not investigate any stolen money, and I never used the word stolen, what I said was that the money was fraudulently transferred,” the witness added.
Justice Osiagor thereafter adjourned the matter till today, Friday for the continuation of trial.
The defendants are facing 17 counts bordering on conspiracy, unlawful retention of proceeds of theft and money laundering.
Fani-Kayode, who was the Director of Publicity of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s presidential campaign organisation for the 2015 election, was accused of conspiring with the others to, directly and indirectly; retain various sums which the EFCC claimed they ought to have reasonably known were proceeds of crime.
They had each pleaded not guilty to the counts and were granted bail by the court.
The trial began in 2017 with the defendants being arraigned and re-arraigned before Justices Muslim Hassan and Rilwan Aikawa.
Following the transfer of the last trial judge, Justice Aikawa out of the Lagos division of the court, the case was subsequently assigned to a new trial judge, Justice Daniel Osaigor, and the defendants had to start the case from the beginning (de novo).
