Alison Madueke, the former minister of petroleum has been accused of many crimes ranging from bribe to mismanagement of funds. The most recent of her crime was revealed in a Federal High court by a witness used by the prosecution in the trial of an Executive Director with first bank , Dauda Lawal, oyogist.com reports.
The witness revealed how he took twelve bags on orders of Mrs Madueke in 2015 to an Abuja based Lawyer. He explained that he didn’t know what was in the bag at that time but he only discovered that it contained $70m from the EFCC
The witness,who is a former Group General Manager of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) gave the testimony before Justice Muslim Hassan at the resumed hearing on the banker’s trial for alleged money laundering.
The witness was cross-examined by the EFCC lawyer Rotimi Jacob when the witness revealed the incident. Where he took the money to one Charles at Dume supermarket Abuja.
He said: “My Lord, as I can remember, shortly before the 2015 elections, it was the norm for heads of subsidiaries of the NNPC to be invited for an undisclosed briefing of activities of their departments to the minister.”
He said at the end of the meeting, his then boss Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, gave him a phone number in of one banker, who he had never met, ordering him to deliver the 12 padlocked bags to him.
At that time, he had no knowledge of the source or the content of the bag, he claimed he called the banker who met with him and he delivered the bags to him
It was later he discovered the content when the EFCC invited him for interrogation on the issue and I made a statement to that effect.
The witness claimed he had nothing to do with Madueke except the boss and worker relationship. And he only did as commanded
When he was cross-examined by the defence counsel, Patrick Ikwueto (SAN), the witness said he had never met Lawal before.
Justice Hassan adjourned the matter to July 21, 22, and 23, 2020 for the continuation of trial.
