Alleged $40m contract: GEJ’s cousin didn’t receive N650m for safe house – Witness

David Mkpe,the tenth prosecution witness in the trial of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s cousin, Azibaola Robert, has told the Federal High Court, Abuja, that Azibaola and his wife, Stella, did not collect any money for a ‘safe house’ from the Offi ce of the National Security Adviser (ONSA). Robert, his wife, Stella and his fi rm, Oneplus, are standing trial for allegedly receiving the sum of $40 million from the ONSA for the supply of security communication kits believed to have been laundered. However, all the prosecution witnesses except the EFCC operative, Mkpe, who claimed to have investigated the suspects, have denied transacting any business or knowing them before they met in court. Mkpe, who is an operative of EFCC, told the trial judge, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba that Robert, his wife and company, Oneplus Holdings did not collect any money for the ‘safe house’. Under cross examination by the defence counsel, Chris Uche SAN, the witness said, “the petition we received from the Presidential Investigative Committee on Arms Procurement (PICAP) was to specifi cally investigate the N650million paid into the account of Tunji Adeniyi & Co by ONSA.

“We investigated the complaint (from PICAP) and found out that no farthing of the N650 million paid for the safe house was found in any of the accounts of the defendants (Robert, his wife Stella, and Oneplus Holdings Limited). Tunji Adeniyi had testifi ed before this court that he had refunded the said N650 million to the ONSA and also wrote and made statement before the EFCC confi rming the refund.” Still under cross examination, Mkpe told the court that Alhaji Numan Danbatta is the owner of Property Plot Number 2245, Maitama for which the sum of N650 million was paid by the ONSA into the account of Tunji Adeniyi & Co.

“I did not take statement from Alhaji Danbatta, and I have never sighted any statement given by him in the course of our investigation. “All the fi ve members of the EFCC Special Task Force Team 2 which investigated the complaint of the Presidential committee were nonconventional police offi cers, except one, CSP Ibrahim Musa, and said that the team was disbanded immediately after they concluded their investigation.” Mkpe had earlier in the day’s proceedings, also told the Justice Dimgba that he was aware that a member of the Presidential committee which sent the complaint to the EFCC to investigate, had been arrested, detained and being investigated by the Department of State Security (DSS) for alleged fraud. Exhibits were tendered and admitted before the court as Exhibit ASO23, and the trial judge told the prosecution to make available the original copy of the exhibits to the defence on or before the adjourned date. Meanwhile, the matter has been adjourned to 18th and 20th of October 2017 for continuation

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