Tobias Sylvester
Sunday Alade, a former head of Zenith Bank branch in Akure has told the Federal High Court in Lagos that took 10 days to count the N1.2billion which was delivered to the bank on behalf of the former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose.
KanyiDaily had reported that Fayose is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on charges of fraud and money laundering of 1.2bn.
While fielding questions from EFCC lawyer, Mr Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), on Wednesday, October 23, 2019, Alade told Justice C.J. Aneke how the N1.2bn was evacuated from two aircraft and then transferred into a bullion van to the bank 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 was also in court to testify against Fayose explained to Justice Aneke 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, Punch reports.
The Judge adjourned the case till Friday for further hearing.
