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 N20 million from the fund earmarked for the 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 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 one-year lodging to the tune of N20 million, 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 N20 million 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 N20 million 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 N5 million, deposited by Golden Bond Nigeria Limited for the period covering August 30, 2021, to August 30, 2022, and the name of the lodger is Engineer Saleh Mamman. The second column is on January 23, 2022, being a N5 million payment deposited by Mintedge Nigeria Limited to cover from August 30, 2021, to August 30, 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 from August 30, 2021, to August 30, 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 August 30, 2021, to August 30, 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 August 30, 2019, to August 30, 2020, and the amount is N20 million.”
Responding to inquiries from defense counsel, Femi Atteh, SAN, during 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 the continuation of the trial. [The Guardian]
