Principal witness in the ongoing trial of Barr. Azibaola Robert, cousin to
\nformer President Goodluck Jonathan, Alhaji ibrahim Mahe, on Monday told a
\nFederal High Court that only detained former National Security Adviser
\n(NSA)\u200e, Col. Sambo Dasuki can explain why OnePlus Holdings Limited got a
\n$40 million pipeline security contract.<\/p>\n
Mahe, who recently retired as permanent secretary, Special Services
\nOperations (SSO) in the NSA’s offic\u200ee told the court that he paid Oneplus
\n$40 million out of the $600 million special security fund sourced from the
\nNigerian National Petroluem Corporation (NNPC).<\/p>\n
Under cross examination by counsel to Roberts, Chief Chris Uche, Mahe, who
\nadmitted serving only eleven months in the ONSA, also admitted that some
\nother firms got security contracts in excess of $40 million approved for
\nOnePlus.<\/p>\n
The retired permanent secretary, however, failed to tell the court
\n\u200epresided by Justice Nnamdi Dimgba the names of the companies that
\nbenefited from the remaining $560 million of the special security fund.<\/p>\n
He admitted that the ONSA maintained Naira, Dollar and Euro security
\naccounts.<\/p>\n
Also under cross examination, Mahe admitted that prior to crediting the
\naccount of OnePlus\u200e with the $40 million, at least nine officials in the
\noffice of the NSA minuted on the payment warrant.<\/p>\n
The retired permanent secretary said he paid OnePlus based on the
\nconviction that the firm’s security contract met due process requirements,
\nhaving been endorsed by nine top officials of the ONSA.<\/p>\n
Mahe told the court that the ONSA was not in the habit of advertising
\nsecurity contracts, also admitting that for security purposes, certain
\nsecurity contracts could be given codenames.<\/p>\n
Mahe denied being part of any bidding process for the procurement of
\nsecurity gadgets, saying \u200ehis responsibility only entailed disbursing
\nmonies already approved for security contracts.<\/p>\n
The matter was adjourned October 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Principal witness in the ongoing trial of Barr. Azibaola Robert, cousin to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Alhaji ibrahim Mahe, on Monday told a Federal High Court that only detained former…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n