The Federal Government, on Thursday, tendered before the Federal High
\nCourt, Abuja, different currencies of dollars stashed in three bags as
\nevidence in the money laundering charge against Air Commodore Umar
\nMohammed (rtd.)<\/p>\n
Counsel to the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Magaji Labaran,
\ntendered the bags of money before Justice Inyang Ekwo while leading the
\nonly witness in the case, Stephen Olatubosun, in evidence.<\/p>\n
Mohammed (1st defendant) and his company, Easy Jet Integrated Service
\nLtd (2nd defendant), are being charged with three counts bordering on
\nmoney laundering, illegal possession of firearms and possession of
\nclassified documents without lawful authority.<\/p>\n
The retired air officer and his company are alleged to have received the
\nsum of one million, thirty thousand American Dollars ($1,030,000) in
\ncash from Worldwide Consortium PTY Ltd, as payment for freight services
\non 19th June, 2016, contrary to the Money Laundering Act 2011 (as
\nAmended).<\/p>\n
Justice Ekwo had, on Wednesday, ordered that the currencies be counted
\nwith a counting machine at the office of the Deputy Chief Registrar
\n(Litigation) in the presence of all the parties to ascertain the total
\namount before they were tendered at the court.
\nAt the resumed trial on Thursday, the AGF lawyer told the court that the
\nparties in the case had complied with the court order.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy lord, we have done the needful at the office of the Chief Deputy
\nRegistrar (Litigation). The currencies were counted and are in three
\nbags labelled Bag A, Bag B and Bag C,\u201d Labaran said.<\/p>\n
Also, lawyer to the defendants, Hassan Liman, SAN, confirmed that all
\nthe parties were duly represented during the counting of the currencies.<\/p>\n
The prosecution witness, Olatubosun, a staff of the the Department of
\nState Security Service (DSS), identified the three bags of money when he
\nwas being led in evidence by Labaran.
\n\u201cThere are three bags; two black and one brown. They are labelled as Bag
\nA, Bag B and Bag C respectively with the currencies sum attached to
\nthem,\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n
The witness, giving the breakdown of the sum in each bags, said Bag A
\ncontained 529, 400 dollars and Bag B had 499, 800 dollars.
\nOlatubosun said Bag C contained different currencies of dollars
\nincluding naira notes.
\nAccording to him, Bag C contains N1, 200, 000 in 1000 naira note; N100,
\n000 in 500 naira note; 957 US Dollars; 2, 570, 000CFA and another rap of
\n5, 000CFA.<\/p>\n
The DSS officer stated further that Bag C also had 46, 500CFA; 20,
\n000CFA; 4, 000CFA, 50 Barbados Dollars; another 70 Barbados Dollars
\ncontaining 10 bundles; 5 pieces of Caribbean Dollars; 7 pieces of
\nTrinidad and Tobago Dollars ; 5 pieces of Trinidad and Tobago Dollars
\nand another 60 Trinidad and Tobago Dollars in a wrap.<\/p>\n
Justice Ekwo, who admitted the three bags of currencies in exhibits,
\nordered the chief registrar of the court to keep the bags at the Central
\nBank of Nigeria (CBN) pending the further order of the court.<\/p>\n
The witness, during a cross examination by counsel to the defendants,
\nHassan Liman, SAN, said he was neither part of the team that visited the
\nretired officer\u2019s residence nor took his statement.<\/p>\n
He, however, said based on the report in the case file made available by
\nthe DSS officers who carried out the operation, \u201cthe source of the
\ncurrency is from the defendant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Olatubosun said though he did not personally investigate the defendant,
\nto the best of his knowledge, Mohammed \u201cis a businessman.\u201d
\nLiman informed the court that the defendant would be applying for a
\nno-case submission shortly after the judge closed the prosecution case.
\nJustice Ekwo then granted the defence application to enter a no-case
\nsubmission.<\/p>\n
Ekwo, who gave the defence counsel 21 days to file the no-case
\nsubmission, gave the prosecution counsel seven days to counter it and
\ntwo days for the defendant to respond if the need arise.<\/p>\n
The judge adjourned the matter until April 27 for adoption of final
\nwritten addresses in the trial.<\/p>\n
Ppart of the charges against the defendant include possession of two
\npump action guns without valid licenses contrary Section 4 of the
\nFirearms Act, 2004 and for having in his possession classified\/official
\ndocuments without lawful authority contrary to Section 1(1) (b) of the
\nOfficial Secrets Act Cap. O3 LFN, 2004.(NAN)<\/p>\n
The Federal Government, on Thursday, tendered before the Federal High Court, Abuja, different currencies of dollars stashed in three bags as evidence in the money laundering charge against Air Commodore…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n