An operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Shuaibu Shehu, has told a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos that a former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, received the sum of ₦350million from the Ministry of External Affairs through his Zenith Bank account without executing any project or rendering any service to the ministry.
Shehu is the third prosecution witness in the trial of the former Minister of Finance, Mrs Nenadi Usman, Mr Fani-Kayode, one Danjuma Yusuf, and a company, Joint Trust Dimensions Nigeria Limited, on allegations of laundering N4.6billion.
The EFCC witness told Justice Rilwan Aikawa that he became familiar with the charge against the defendants in February 2016, when a petition over the alleged fraudulent transfer from the ministry’s account was assigned to his team to investigate.
Led in evidence by the EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, the witness stated that the sum of N800m was transferred from the Ministry of External Affairs to a company called Joint Trust Dimension Ltd without the company also executing any contract.
Fani-Kayode, who was the Director of Publicity of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s presidential campaign organisation for the 2015 election, was accused of conspiring with the others to, directly and indirectly, retain various sums which the EFCC claimed they ought to have reasonably known were proceeds of crime.