TheCable

Nurudeen Bello, a witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has accused Ibrahim Abdul-salam, former managing director of Nigeria Airspace Managent Agency (NAMA), of laundering N2.8 billion alongside some ex-officials of the agency.

Abdul-Salam is facing trial alongside Nnamdi Udoh, Adegorite Olumuyiwa, Segun Agbolade, Clara Aliche, Joy Adegorite, Randville Invesment Limited and Multeng Travels, and Tours Limited.

They were accused of conspiring to induce the agency to deliver N2.8billion to Delosa Limited, Air Sea Delivery Limited and Sea Schedule Systems Limited under the pretext that the money represented the cost of clearing NAMA’s consignments.

At a federal high court in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Friday, Bello, an investigator with the EFCC, said his team was assigned to investigates petition against the defendants in 2016.

“My team and I wrote to the bank, requesting the financial records of all the defendants. We also wrote to the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, to obtain the records of importation made by the Nigeria Airspace Agency, NAMA, from 2010 to 2016, ” he said.

“We wrote to Guaranty Trust Bank, attaching the NCS’s acknowledgement of payment receipt, seeking the authentication obtained by the bank. We received all the responses and same were analyzed.

“We proceeded to NAMA office, within Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, where we conducted extensive search and invited some of the defendants to the EFCC office.

“We wrote to the NCS based on the petition and subsequent investigations carried out. Various documents were analyzed and it was discovered that the sum of N2.8billion was carted away from the account of the National Airspace Management Agency by the defendants.

“The money was transferred at various times to the accounts of Randville Invesment Limited, Multeng Travels and Tours Limited, Air Sea Delivery Limited and Sea Schedule  Systems Limited, belonging to some of the defendants and diverted for personal use under the pretext of using  the said money for clearing of imported items for NAMA”

The witness also listed out the amount received by Delosa which was withdrawn from NAMA account, and the statement of account of Randville Invesment Limited.

“The money was transferred to Randville Investment, which shared them among Multeng Travels and Tours Limited, Multeng Engineering, Multeng Aviation, NNPC Retail Limited, Airspace Delivery and some Bureau De Change operators, “the witness said.

“Cash withdrawals were mostly done by Segun Agbolade and Joy Ayodele Adegorite, for onward transfer to Segun Agbolade. Also, some cash payments were made to Mr. Alaba Odulani.”

Bello told the court that less than N9 million was transferred in tranches in one day and several days in different months.

This, he said, “was done to avoid triggering the reporting requirements of banks, if the money transferred was up to N10 million”.

Babs Kuewumi, the presiding judge, adjourned the case to June 13 and June 14.