Bureau de change operator tells court that Goodluck's assistant gave him $4m at Aso Rock

FORMER president Goodluck Jonathan's special assistant Waripamo-Owei Dudafa has been accused of giving a bureau de change operator $4m at the presidential villa during his ongoing trial taking place at a Lagos federal high court.

 

Mr Dudafa is being charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) with using four companies to launder cash. Already, the companies Pluto Property and Investment Company, Seagate Property Development and Investment Company, Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company and Avalon Global Property Development Company, have pleaded guilty to a 15-count charge brought against them.

 

Yesterday, Murtala Abubakar, a bureau de change operator, said he received a total of N1.6bn from Mr Dudafa through five companies – Pluto Properties and Investment, Avalon Global Property, Rotato Interlink Services, Seagate Property and Ebiwise Services - between 2013 and 2015. Mr Abubakar, led in evidence by Rotimi Oyedepo, the EFCC counsel, said he had known Mr Dudafa since his days as a commissioner for local government in Bayelsa State under the administration of Governor Timipre Sylva.

 

He also told the court that the only relationship between the two of them was foreign exchange transactions that continued up to the time Mr Dudafa became a personal assistant to President Jonathan. Mr Dudafa and Joseph Iwejuo are facing a 23-count charge of concealment, retention of proceeds of crime and failure to furnish information, before Justice Mohammed Idris of the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court.

 

Mr Abubakar said: “He usually send two of his staff, Festus and Jahman, with dollars in order to change same and deposit the naira equivalent into specific accounts he provides via text messages. I can confirm that all the dollars received during the transactions came from him.”

 

He added that he received those text messages from Mr Dudafa on his Samsung mobile phone. During the course of the trial, the mobile phone and an Ownership Attestation Form were admitted and marked as Exhibits E and E1 respectively.

 

When asked whether all the instructions on how to disburse the money were received via text messages, Mr Murtala replied in the affirmative but added that in the last transaction, Mr Dudafa invited him to the presidential villa and handed to him $4m cash. Mr Abubakar was confronted with exhibits A – B3 in which he identified all the transactions that transpired between himself and Mr Dudafa from 2013 to 2015 both from his companies’ accounts and his personal account.

 

When it was time for the cross-examination of the witness, the defendants’ counsels, Gboyega Oyewale and Sunday Abumeri, requested for an adjournment. Justice Idris adjourned the case until September 27 for cross-examination.