Ex-NNPC chief’s companies received N2.2bn from ONSA before 2015 election – Witness

A prosecution witness in the trial of the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, for alleged arms procurement fraud, Adariko Michael, said on Wednesday two companies belonging to a former General Manager of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Aminu Baba-Kusa, received N2.2 billion from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) before the 2015 general election.

Micheal, who is an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) investigative officer, stated this at the resumed trial of the ex-NSA for alleged $2billion arms procurement fraud at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court.

The EFCC arraigned Dasuki, Baba-Kusa, Acacia Holdings Limited and Reliance Referral Hospital Limited on a 32-count charge of misappropriation, criminal breach of trust, dishonest release and receiving of various sums of money from the ONSA.

Led in defence by the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), the witness alleged that the amount was part of the N5 billion approved by ONSA for the 2015 governorship and state House of Assembly elections.

He added that EFCC discovered that N5billion was transferred from the ONSA’s signatory bonus account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to another account domiciled with Zenith Bank.

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Michael said: “From our investigation, we discovered that N5billion was debited to the ONSA’s CBN account with the account number 000000400225220 and credited to the account of ONSA in Zenith Bank.

“The N5billion was taken from a signatory bonus account to prepare for the governorship and state House of Assembly elections as approved by the Accountant-General of the Federation.

“We found out that Reliance Referral Hospital Limited was credited with N750million on April 17, 2015.

“We also discovered that on the same April 17, 2015, the accounts of Acacia Holdings Limited with EcoBank and UBA were credited with N650million and N600million respectively.

“We further discovered that the two companies belonged to Baba-Kusa.”

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