A former head of Zenith Bank branch in Akure, Ondo State, Sunday
Alade, told the Federal High Court in Lagos on Wednesday that it took
10 days to count the N1.2bn delivered to the bank in June 2014 by
Abiodun Agbele, an ally of former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele
Fayose.
Alade was in court to testify against Fayose, who is being prosecuted
by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for an alleged fraud
of N2.2bn.
Alade, who was fielding questions from the EFCC lawyer, Mr Rotimi
Jacobs (SAN), narrated to Justice C.J. Aneke, how the N1.2bn was
evacuated from two aircraft and taken in two trips in a bullion van to
the bank for lodgment as instructed by Agbele.
He said, “When the aircraft arrived, three individuals disembarked
from it, two of them walked away while the third person walked to
Abiodun Agbele. After a short interaction, we were left to offload the
cash from the aircraft.
“One Adewale O who introduced himself as the orderly to Senator
Obanikoro led us to offload the cash. When we got to the branch, we
bundle-counted the cash and it was about N744m.
“We were told there was a balance and we went back to the airport to
pick the second batch from the aircraft into our bullion van. The
second tranche was about N494m, making a total of N1.2bn. The money
was detail-counted by the Cash and Teller Unit for 10 days before it
was credited into three different accounts.”
A senior official of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Aliu Mohammed, who
also testified against Fayose, told the court how N2.2bn was
transferred from the operational account of former National Security
Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, to the Diamond bank’s account of a firm, Sylva
Mcmanara.
Justice Aneke adjourned till Friday for further proceedings.
