received, paid $3m into Aisha Achimugu’s company’s account– EFCC’s witness
The PW-2, a Bureau De Change (BDC) operator, spoke in the ongoing trial of Halima Buba, Managing Director of SunTrust Bank, and her co-defendant, Innocent Mbagwu, the Executive Director/Chief Compliance Officer of the bank.
In a six-count charge, they were alleged to have aided high-value cash transactions without routing them through a financial institution.
The offence is said to be contrary to Section 21(a), 2(1), and 9(1)(d) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and punishable under Section 19(2)(b) of the same Act.
The defendants were, on June 13, arraigned by the anti-graft agency.
They, however, pleaded not guilty to the counts, and admitted to a N100 million bail with one surety, each in like sum.
At the resumed trial, the witness said he was in court to tell what he knew about the transactions he did with Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd, owned by Achimugu.
Usman, who said he was a businessman and general contractor, said he was also into agro allied and oil business.
He said he carried out the businesses with companies or registered names.
He said his companies include Triple A and Tee Service Venture, T.M. Agro Allied Farm, Triple A and D Oil and Gas Ltd, Triple A and Tee BDC Ltd, among others.
“Sometimes in April 2025, one Suleiman Ciroma contacted me that he has transaction that he needed 3 million US dollars to (be transfered to) Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd.
“In that particular time, I have the money being in my Triple A and Tee Oil and Gas Nig Ltd account.
“After we agreed with him, Suleiman Ciroma gave me the dollar payment in cash.
“I paid him the dollars into Oceangate Engineering Oil and Gas Ltd account,” he said.
He said the payment was made in April 2025
“Can you remember the exact date you made the payment?” Iheanacho asked.
“I made the transfer in four tranches but I cannot remember the exact day,” the witness responded.
However, when the lawyer asked the witness if he knew Buba and Mbagwu, he said he did not know them.
“Take a look at the dock and tell the court if you know the defendants,” Iheanacho asked and the witness simply said, “No.”
Usman told the court that he did the transactions with Triple A and Tee Oil Nig Ltd.
“It was from there I transfered the dollars into Oceangate Engineering Oil and Gas Ltd,” he said.
But when Iheanacho asked the PW-2 if his BDC company, Triple A and Tee BDC Ltd, featured in the transaction, counsel for the 1st defendant (Buba), Johnson Usman, SAN, raised an objection.
The senior lawyer argued that Iheanacho’s question was a ploy to give the witness tips on what to say and the judge directed him to rephrase the question.
The witness said that the licence of Triple A and Tee BDC Ltd, as at the time of the transactions, had been suspended.
He said the cash transactions from Ciroma were made through his staff.
He mentioned the names of the staff as Abdulkadir Mohammed and Kabir Haruna.
The BDC operator also said that he equally did a naira to dollar transaction with Ciroma.
“The naira was transfered into Triple A and Tee Service Venture Ltd Bank account.
“The naira also was converted into dollars and I sent the equivalent into Oceangate account,” he said.
However, during cross-examination by Buba’s counsel, Usman SAN, the witness was asked to confirm to court that Triple A and Tee BDC Ltd had been in operations till date and he responded in affirmative.
“After they suspended our licence, we proposed Triple A and Tee BDC Ltd to CBN last year and we have an approval in principle with CBN,” the witness responded.
“Ciroma Suleiman contacted you in these transactions because he knows you as BDC operator?” the lawyer asked and the PW-2 responded in affirmative.
When Usman asked the witness that it was on the basis of that knowledge that the PW-2 sent his staff to collect the dollars from Ciroma, Iheanacho too objected to the question.
The witness admitted that he did not tell the defendants before the transactions that his BDC license was suspended at any time.
He said his oil company account was used for the transactions because it was the account he had available dollars.
‘The choice of using your oil and gas company account to transfer the dollars to Oceangate was your own decision,” the lawyer asked and the witness responded in affirmative.
Counsel to the 2nd defendant (Mbagwu), M.S. Ibrahim, SAN, asked the witness if he made any profit from the transactions and he responded in affirmative.
“Did you tell the defendants whom you have never seeing or know before that you were going to make inflow payment from your oil and gas company’s account?” Ibrahim asked and the PW-2 said, “No.”
After the cross-examination, the witness was discharged and Justice Nwite adjourned the matter until Dec. 10 and Dec. 11 for continuation of trial.
Earlier on Thursday during the cross-examination of Suleiman Ciroma, the owner of Funnacle BDC Ltd and the PW-I by Usman SAN, the witness said the reason Achimugu requested for the transfer of the money was that if she had deposited the money in cash in the bank, she would not be able to transfer same.
Ciroma said Trimizi Usman and Hassan Dantani, upon their representatives collecting the money, in turn, transferred the dollars equivalent “less their charges into a designated account provided by Aisha Achimugu.”
He agreed with Usman’s question that in forex transaction, a transfer can only be made from an account where the money came by way of inflow and not by cash deposit.
When the lawyer asked Ciroma that Achimugu needed the dollar transfer to purchase her two oil blocks, the PW-1 responded in affirmative.
The witness told the court that he is a member of BDC Traders Association Wuse Zone 4 in Abuja.
He said that was why when he made his statements to EFCC on April 14, April 11 and May 7, the executive members of the association were with him at the time.
Ciroma, who agreed that he was duly cautioned before writing the extra-judicial statements, admitted that there was no part he informed the defendants, particularly Buba, that his BDC licence had expired.
Also while being cross-examined by Ibrahim, who appeared for the 2nd defendant, Ciroma agreed that he had never seen Mbagwu physically before.
He also admitted that he had never produced any text or Whatsapp message between him and Mbagwu before the court before.(NAN)
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