Peoples Democratic Party Board of Trustee Chairman, Haliru Bello (Right) and son Abba (Left)
It has been revealed before the court how a former ex-Peoples Democratic Party Board of Trustee Chairman, Haliru Bello and his son Abba allegedly shared N300m security fund of the state for election campaign activities of the PDP.
The revelation was made by an operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Rouqayyat Ibrahim, who is a witness in the case. She told the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday that the N300m was part of the N30bn released to the ONSA’s account with the Central Bank of Nigeria on March 11, 2015.
Led in evidence by the prosecuting counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), the witness said the N300m was transferred into BAM Project and Properties Limited’s account on March 17, 2015, six days after ONSA received the sum of N30bn in its account with the CBN.
She said, “One of the discoveries we made after receiving documents from the Accountant General of the Federation’s office was a letter written by the Ministry of Finance to the CBN requesting for N100bn on March 2, 2015 for several expenditures. But specifically, N30bn of that N100bn was for ONSA for security issues.
“Then on March 3, 2015, the Accountant-General of the Federation wrote to the Ministry of Finance in respect of N30bn for ONSA and another N31bn for another matter entirely.
“On March 6, 2015, the Accountant-General of the Federation wrote to the CBN authorising the release of the N30bn which was paid into ONSA account in CBN on March 11, 2015.
“Then on March 17, 2015, N300m from the money paid into ONSA account, was paid into the bank account of Bam Project and Properties Limited (the second defendant) with Sterling Bank.
“The narration on the mandate for the payment, was payment for ‘Safe Houses’.”
It would be recalled that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had on January 5, 2015 arraigned Bello, Abba and his (Abba’s) firm, BAM Project and Properties Limited on four counts of money laundering involving the sum of N300m security fund which they allegedly received from the Office of the National Security Adviser in March 2015.
The prosecution alleged that instead of using the money to provide “safe houses” for which purpose it was released to them by the ONSA, the accused persons used the money to foot personal bills and shared the money to some corporate bodies for the campaign activities of the PDP.
The trial continues.
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