The trial of former Minister of Power, Saleh
Mamman continued on Wednesday, November 27, 2024 in the Federal High
Court, Abuja, presided over by Justice James Omotosho with
the cross-examination of the third Prosecution Witness, (PW3), Colonel
Adebisi Adesanya (retd).
The cross-examination followed the testimony of the
witness on Tuesday, November 26, 2024, in which he
disclosed that the former minister spent the sum of
N20million from the fund earmarked for Mambilla Hydro Power
project on payment for lodging in a resort over a period of one year.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC is
prosecuting Mamman on a 12-count charge bordering on conspiracy to commit money
laundering to the tune of N33,804,830,503.73 (Thirty-three Billion, Eight
Hundred and Four Million, Eight Hundred and Thirty Thousand, Five Hundred and
Three Naira, Seventy-three Kobo).
The witness, the Chief Security Officer and
owner of Sami Court Resort Limited, where Mamman allegedly paid for a
one year lodging to the tune of N20million, disclosed while being
led in evidence on Tuesday by prosecution counsel, A.O. Mohammed
that “Sami Court Resort Limited is a service apartment where people come
to lodge and stay for a long time, one month, two months, a year,” adding
that “You only book in with your clothes, then any other thing is
serviced by the apartment.”
He also revealed that he was invited for
questioning by the EFCC on September 6, 2023 regarding inflows
from accommodation and lodging into the United Bank for Africa, (UBA)
account of the resort over the period spanning from 2019 to 2021 and identified Exhibit
PWC as the invoice issued to Mamman by the resort after his
payment of N20million for lodging, covering the period
between August 30, 2021 and August 30, 2022.
“This is our company’s invoice. We
issued it after the payment of N20million with respect to
lodging and accommodation for Engineer Saleh Mamman,” he said.
Giving a breakdown of the lodging inflows from Mamman
as contained in “Exhibit PWC,” he revealed
that “On September 6, 2021, the inflow was N5million,
deposited by Golden Bond Nigeria Limited for the period covering
30th August 2021 to 30th August 2022 and the name of the lodger
is Engineer Saleh Mamman. The second column is on January
23, 2022, being N5million payment deposited by Mintedge Nigeria
Limited to cover from 30th August 2021 to 30th August 2022.
“The third column is March 9, 2022, and the amount
is N2, 500, 000 (Two Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira), payment
by Abdullahi Suleiman and it is to cover the period of
30th August 2021 to 30th August, 2022 for Engineer Saleh
Mamman. And the last one is on May 10, 2022, and the amount
is N7, 500,000 (Seven Million Five Hundred Thousand
Naira), deposited by A.I.J Global Tools Limited over the period covering
30th August 2021 to 30th August 2022 and the name of the lodger is
Engineer Saleh Mamman,” he said.
The witness further disclosed that the payments by
Mamman were just for one bedroom rental, all made through the
resort’’s UBA account.
“The documents are our invoice in respect to payment
for one bedroom rental from 30th August 2019 and 30th August 2020 and
the amount is N20million.
Responding to enquiries from defence
counsel, Femi Atteh, SAN at today’s cross-examination, the witness
admitted that as the resort’s chief security officer, he was
Justice Omotosho afterwards adjourned the
case till January 13, 2025 for continuation of trial.
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