Saraki: Blackout forces tribunal adjourn till 18 April

On 30 April, 2009, there was a draft in favour BGL Assets Management Limited in  the sum of N400 million.

There were several cash lodgements by different individuals on that same day. There was a lodgement of N65 million on that day after which there  was a loan  disbursement of N400 million.

On 26 October  2009, there were cash lodgements by different individuals-87 lodgments in all. The money was deposited to defray the loans because the account was in debit balance.

The deposits were not made at once to beat the Money Laundering Law. Wetkas said even the bankers confirmed that was why the deposits were staggered.

He said his team demanded for the deposit slips from GTB and raised issues with the bank because there were no details of individuals who pay in the money.

Since there was no address on the deposit slips, we could not trace the depositors as the deposit slips were not filled in a normal way. But GTB defended itself by saying  it had  since reported the transaction to NFIU.

On 5 Nov. 2009, there was also cash lodgements by several individuals.

Exhibit P8

This is Saraki’s  dollar account. On 18 May, 2009, there was cash lodgement by Todimu of eight thousand dollars. On that same day, he lodged in another eight thousand dollars. On the same 18th, there was another lodgement of four thousand dollars by one Bayo, a banker.

On the 19 May, there were deposits of 10,00 dollars each into the account. The last three deposits were made by the defendant himself. Then, there was a lodgement on 50,000 dollars on 12, June, 2009 by one Garba Dare. Then, one 99, 925 dollars by one Din Dahuuh, a BDC.

On 26 Aug 2009, there was 49,969 dollars by Carlisle Property and Investment Ltd.

On 7 Sept 2009, there was 59,964 dollars by the same company. The transfer to this account- the outflow were basically made to American Express Services Europe Limited.

Part of the outflows were to BDCs. From our investigations, the transfers from this account to American Express Services Europe Ltd account was up to $3,4million dollars. Part of the outflow also is to the Pound Sterling Account.

The foreign currencies were transferred to American Services Euro Ltd acct no 730580 and the beneficiary banks according to telex for transfer are American Express Bank, New York. One of the telex, used for a transaction on 25, Aug 2008 for the sum of 73,223.28 dollars was tendered.