Witness to Court: N4.6bn Was Used to Fund Jonathan’s Election

Wale Igbintade

An Investigating Officer with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Shehu Shuaibu, yesterday, told a federal high court in Lagos that the sum of N4.6 billion allegely transferred into a Joint Trust account was used to finance the Presidential Campaign of former President, Goodluck Jonathan in 2019.

Shuaibu disclosed this yesterday while testifying before Justice Daniel Osiagor in the trial of former Minister of Finance, Senator Nenadi Usman, former aviation minister Femi Fani-Kayode, and two others over alleged money laundering and other fraud-related offences.

Under cross-examination by Mr Ferdinand Orbih, SAN,  lawyer to the first Defendant (Nenadi Usman), the witness stated that his team, from the Special Task Force of the EFCC did not invite former President Jonathan throughout their investigation.

The witness admitted that the first Defendant, Usman, was the Director of Finance, President Goodluck Jonathan’s Campaign Organisation, while the second Defendant, Fani-Kayode, was Director, 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 further 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”

The witness further disclosed that the money was paid from the State House to the NEA Account, before it was transferred into the Joint Trust account, stating that the money was paid by the Permanent Secretary, State House, Nebolisa Emodi, and that he was invited for Interrogation by his team but not charged to court.

There was, however, controversy when asked to name those that stole the money, he said during his investigation, he did not investigate the Defendants for stealing, hence he would not know if they stole the money or not.

However, Orbih confronted the witness with a Certified True Copy of proceedings before Justice Rilwanu Aikawa, who was handling the case before he was transferred out of Lagos, where the witness stated that the money was stolen.

“I did not investigate any stolen money, and I never used the word stolen. What I said was that the money was fraduently transferred,” the witness added.

Justice Osiagor then adjourned the matter till today (Friday) for continuation of trial.