A former Acting Managing Director of Unity Bank Plc, Rislanudeen Mohammed has said he was not in a position to determine whether or not the transactions he had with former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke in relation to a N300m facility was legitimate.
Mohammed spoke on Monday while testifying as the second prosecution witness at the resumed hearing in the money laundering trial of Adoke and an Abuja-based businessman, Aliyu Abubakar before a Federal High Court in Abuja.
The witness, had told the court on August 13, 2020 that, upon his appointment in August 2018 he discovered that Adoke got a N300m loan facility from his bank, which he (Mohammed) later pressurised the ex-AGF to repay.
He said when Adoke wanted to repay the loan, he (Adoke) invited him to his (Adoke’s) house in Abuja and handed him $2,267,400 cash, which was later handed to a bureau de change (BDC) to convert to naira, and part of which was used to repay the loan.
Mohammed, who said all the transactions in relation to the $2,267,400 were not captured in his bank’s record, said he could not say whether or not the transactions were legitimate or above board.
He spoke while being re-examined by the lead prosecution lawyer, Bala Sanga, who sought to know whether or not the witness was in a position to offer any legal opinion about the legitimacy or otherwise of the transactions, having said he is neither a lawyer nor a law enforcement agent.
Sanga raised the question in relation to the witness’ earlier response during cross examination by Adoke’s lawyer, Kanu Agabi (who is also a former AGF).
Agabi had among others, asked the witness if he believed the transactions were transparent and above board, since he (the witness) claimed to have acted as an agent of his bank and that the $2,267,400 was paid to a BDC, a financial institution, to be converted to naira.
In response to another question from Sanga, the witness said he did not have the mandate of his bank to go to Adoke’s house to collect the $2,267,400 cash.
Earlier, during cross examination by Agabi, the witness admitted that his wife and daughter (Safiat and Naimatu) were shareholders in the BDC to which the dollars he collected from Adoke were sent for conversion.
The witness, who stated that there was nothing unusual about his family members being shareholders in a BDC that he patronised, said his wife and daughter invested N2.5million each.
Mohammed said he did not report the transactions between him and Adoke to any lawful authority like the Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC), the police and his bank as suspicious transactions.
“At that point in time, I did not see anything suspicion in the transactions. The bank did not reprimand me for the transactions,” he said.
The witness said his bank knew about his relationship with the operator of the BDC (Alhaji Usman Bello) and the fact that his (witness’) wife and daughter were shareholders in the BDC, because they were listed in documents with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) as directors of the BDC.
When asked by Agabi whether the transactions were transparent and above board, the witness said it was a recovery issue and were transparent.
The witness said he acted as an agent of his bank when he collected the dollar in cash from Adoke, but that he did not issue him (Adoke) a receipt or any document for the transaction.
Mohamed said he also did not obtain a receipt when he handed the dollars to a Unity Bank’s beach manager, Nura Abdullahi, who later transferred the money to the BDC operator.
The witness said Abdullahi also did not issue any receipt to the BDC operator when he handed him the $2,267,400 for conversion to naira.
Mohamed had on August 13, 2020 told the court that the dollars transactions did not reflect in his bank’s record because there was no way such an amount could have been paid into the account even if he (Adoke) had a dollar denominated account, because of money laundering issues.
While being cross-examined by lawyer to the second defendant (Abubakar), Olalekan Ojo (SAN), the witness said he never had any dealings with Abubakar and never knew him.
The third prosecution witness, Bello (the BDC operator) said he resides in Kano and gave the names of his BDC firms as Gagarimi BDC and Crownford BDC.
He admitted knowing only Adoke among the two defendants and said he accompanied Mohammed (second prosecution witness) to Adoke’s Abuja home to collect the $2,267,400 cash.
Bello said the money was later handed to him and he took the cash to Kano in his car and converted it to naira, which amounted to N366,318,800.
The witness said he paid the naira equivalent of the dollars into Adoke’s account with Unity Bank in 35 tranches.
On why he had to pay in tranches, the witness said: “The bank (Unity Bank) told me that the payment should not exceeded N5m per transaction.”
He was however silent on why the bank so instructed him.
Further proceedings was however stalled when, at the invitation of the prosecution’s fourth witness, Alhaji Farouk Suleiman, Ojo noted that his statement was not exhibited by the prosecution as required under Section 376(4)) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA).
Sanga admitted the slip and sought an adjournment to enable him do the needful, a request Agabi and Ojo did not oppose.
Justice Inyang Ekwo upheld the Sanga’s application for adjournment and fixed September 9 for continuation of trial.
Meanwhile Sanga, who is also the lead prosecution lawyer in the case against Adoke and eight others over their alleged complicity in the controversial Malabu Oil deals, told the court on Monday that he has amended an earlier charge filed against the defendants.
Justice Ekwo agreed to take the case, marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/268/2016 on Tuesday, during which the defendants are expected to be arraigned afresh on the amended charge.
