The trial of Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, a former Minister of Special Duties
\nand Inter-governmental affairs continued today before Justice Inyang
\nEkwo of the Federal High Court Abuja with the twelfth prosecution
\nwitness, PW12, Bello Hamma’Adama narrating to the court how funds
\nearmarked for sensitization of Muslim youths were redirected to the
\naccount of the first defendant ‘s wife.<\/p>\n
Bello, an operative attached to the Chairman’s Monitoring Unit of the
\nEFCC, while being led in evidence by M. S. Abubakar told the court that
\nsometime in 2017, the EFCC received intelligence on the activities of
\nthe first defendant, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, a minister of special duties
\nbetween 2013 and 2015 during which he also doubled as chairman
\nPresidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security
\nChallenges in the North.<\/p>\n
He told the court that the first defendant was profiled, leading to the
\ndiscovery of the activities of the other defendants. Consequently,
\nletters of investigation activities were written to relevant
\nauthorities, while documents received were analyzed.<\/p>\n
While giving details of the findings, Bello told the court that N18
\nbillion Naira was paid to the first defendant for constituency project
\nby the National Assembly, adding that investigation further revealed
\nthat a sum of N359, 104,000 was also paid into the account of the
\nMinistry of Special duties for the sensitization of Muslims on the
\nachievements of the then President but the money was disbursed
\nsuspiciously which led the EFCC to follow the trail.<\/p>\n
The witness revealed that only N150m in tranches of N50m was paid to one
\nTahir Umar Tahir who was Senior Special Assistant to former President
\nGoodluck Jonathan on Islamic Affairs. He said another N5Om was released
\nto one Okunrinboye Titus who allegedly handed over the money to Samson
\nOkeptu, the second defendant. He, in turn, transferred the N50m to Tahir
\nwho then paid N30 million into an organization’s account and expended
\nthe balance of N20 in cash for the programme.<\/p>\n
Bello further narrated to the court that, when Tahir was asked why he
\nhad only N150m, he replied that only N150 million was released to him.<\/p>\n
Bello\u00a0 further revealed to the court that the balance of N159,104,000
\nfrom the account of Ministry of Special duties was transferred to
\ndifferent individuals with the narration of sensitization, including one
\nAbdullahi Maigwandu Bagudu who got N45 million, another Abdulrahman
\nYusuf got N50 million , Samson Okpetu the second defendant got N20
\nmillion and another got N30 million.<\/p>\n
The witness further told the Court that Maigwandu, who earns a monthly
\nsalary of N33, 000, had a credit entry of N1.76 billion in his account
\nand the transactions came in tranches of N10 million or N5 million,
\nadding that ” we suspected money laundering, so we did cash work
\nanalysis, network analysis and realized that he cannot be the owner of
\nthe account. Every transaction in the account belonged to the first
\ndefendant who happens to be his brother.”<\/p>\n
Bello also told the court Maigwandu transferred the sum of N20 million
\nto the wife of the first defendant Halima Kabiru Turaki, another N20
\nmillion to a company and another N5 million was withdrawn in China
\nthrough an ATM to purchase furniture.<\/p>\n
PW12 further told the Court that the wife of the first defendant, when
\nshe was invited, told the EFCC on record that “she is only a house wife
\nand has never done any contract or carried out any sensitization
\nexercise for Special Duties Ministry.<\/p>\n
“All the transactions carried out by Maigwandu were at her instructions
\nand she had so far refunded N75 million”.<\/p>\n
The trial has been adjourned till February 9 and 10, 2021for
\ncontinuation of hearing.<\/p>\n
Turaki, his special assistant Sampson Okpetu and two companies: Samtee
\nEssentials Limited and Pasco Investment Limited are standing trial on a
\n16 count change for fraud amounting to N714, 670, 014.87 (Seven Hundred
\nand Fourteen Million Six Hundred and Seventy Thousand and Fourteen
\nNaira) .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The trial of Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, a former Minister of Special Duties and Inter-governmental affairs continued today before Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court Abuja with the twelfth…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-news"],"yoast_head":"\n